GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Global patenting activity soared to new records in 2022, fueled by Indian and Chinese innovators, but an uncertain economic outlook is weighing on further growth, says the World Intellectual Property Organization report.
Even as global filings for trademarks and designs dropped, innovators from around the world submitted 3.46 million patent applications in 2022, marking a third consecutive year of growth, according to WIPO’s annual World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report.
China, the US, Japan, Republic of Korea and Germany were the countries with the highest numbers of patent filings in 2022. While innovators from China continue to file nearly half of all global patent applications, the country’s growth rate dipped for a second consecutive year from 6.8 percent in 2021 to 3.1 percent in 2022.
Meantime, patent applications by residents of India grew by 31.6 percent in 2022, extending an 11-year run of growth unmatched by any other country among the top 10 filers.
In releasing the report, WIPO Director General Daren Tang warned that geopolitical instability and an uncertain economic outlook could weigh on the global intellectual property (IP) ecosystem.
He said, “IP filings have braved the pandemic to continue to grow, powered by increased levels of innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship and digitalization in all parts of the world. Developing countries are increasingly engines of IP, showing the greatest growth rates as they harness the innovation and creative potential of their people.”
He added, “However, uncertainty continues to weigh on the global innovation ecosystem, with venture capital funding dropping in many parts of the world. We urge investors to pursue quality, but not at the expense of supporting good ideas that can change the world for the better.”
Trademark application class counts declined by 14.5 percent in 2022, following extraordinary growth in 2020 and 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a shift in work and life patterns, spurring the introduction of new goods and services into the marketplace.
Similarly, industrial design filing activity recorded a 2.1 percent decline, following growth over the previous four years.
Continuing a longer-term trend, the bulk of IP filing activity occurs in Asia, from all origins.
Asia accounted for 67.9 percent, 67.8 percent and 70.3 percent of global patent, trademarks and industrial designs filing activity in 2022.
The WIPI found a substantial rise in patent filings by residents of China and India.
These were the main drivers of global growth in 2022.
Applicants based in China filed around 1.58 million patent applications in 2022, covering both domestic and foreign jurisdictions.
China was followed by the US (505,539), Japan (405,361), the Republic of Korea (272,315) and Germany (155,896).
China (+3.1 percent), the Republic of Korea (+1.9 percent) and the US (+1.1 percent) filed more applications in 2022 than in 2021.
In contrast, Germany (-4.8 percent) and Japan (-1.6 percent) filed fewer applications in 2022.
The majority of the top 20 origins – 13 out of 20 – filed a greater number of patent applications in 2022 than in 2021.
The largest increases were in India, which filed 31.6 percent more application in 2022. Switzerland (+6.1 percent), China (+3.1 percent), Austria (+2.5 percent) and the UK (+2.5 percent) also reported robust growth in filings.
An estimated 11.8 million trademark applications covering 15.5 million classes were filed worldwide in 2022.
The number of classes specified in applications fell by 14.5 percent in 2022, marking the first annual reduction in application class count since 2009.
The long-term trend in trademark filing is still positive, despite having been distorted by the pandemic.
The highest volume of filing activity came from applicants based in China with a combined domestic and abroad application class count of around 7.7 million; followed by US applicants (945,571), those based in Türkiye (482,567), and applicants from Germany (479,334) and India (467,918).
In 2022, an estimated 1.1 million industrial design applications were filed worldwide.
These applications contained about 1.5 million designs, corresponding to a decrease of 2.1 percent on 2021.
With 841,164 designs in applications filed, applicants residing in China were the most active in the world in terms of design count in 2022.
They were followed by applicants from Türkiye (80,559), Germany (70,346), the U.S. (67,349) and the Republic of Korea (62,014).
Together, these top five countries accounted for three-quarter (75.6 percent) of the global activity in 2022.
Driven mainly by a rapid increase in filings by applicants from China, the combined share of the top five origins has grown by 4.6 percentage points over the last decade.
Around 27,260 plant variety applications were filed worldwide in 2022, up +8.2 percent on 2021 and is seventh consecutive year of growth.
Applicants from China were the most active in 2022, filing 12,357 plant variety applications, corresponding to 45.3 percent of the world total.
China-based applicants were followed by applicants from the Netherlands (2,874), the US (2,120), the UK (1,657), and France (1,167).