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A new WIPO report shows that while the global economy continued to underperform, intellectual property (IP) filings worldwide kept growing strongly in 2011. It also finds that Chinas patent office became the largest in the world, as measured by the number of patent applications received. Before 2011, China already accounted for most filings of utility models (UMs), trademarks and industrial designs.1 World Intellectual Property Indicators 2012 shows that patent filings worldwide grew by 7.8% in 2011, exceeding 7% growth for the second year in a row. Similarly, UM, industrial design and trademark filings increased by 35%, 16% and 13.3%, respectively. Sustained growth in IP filings indicates that companies continue to innovate despite weak economic conditions. This is good news, as it lays the foundation for the world economy to generate growth and prosperity in the future, said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. Chinas State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) overtook the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in 2011 to become the largest patent office in the world, after having surpassed the Japan Patent Office (JPO) in 2010. In the 100 years before 2011, only three patent offices Germany, Japan and the United States - had occupied the position of largest office. In the Reports foreword, Mr. Gurry points out that even though caution is required in directly comparing IP filing figures across countries, these trends nevertheless reflect how the geography of innovation has shifted.
Infographic: China's patent surge
In 2011, the estimated number of patents granted approached the 1 million mark, with 606,800 issued to residents and 390,000 to nonresidents. Grants worldwide grew by 9.7% in 2011. The JPO (with 238,323) granted the largest number of patents, followed by the USPTO (224,505). The number of potentially pending applications worldwide defined as all unprocessed applications at any stage in the applications process declined by 4.9% in 2011, following a 3.3% decrease in 2010. The JPO was the main contributor to this trend. Based on estimates from 76 offices, the number of potentially pending applications worldwide stood at 4.8 million in 2011.
http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2013/article_0025.html
2013/5/2
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An estimated 670,700 UM applications were filed across the world in 2011, corresponding to a 35% increase on 2010. Filings at SIPO accounted for most of this increase. Residents of Japan and the US filed the largest numbers of UM applications abroad, of which a large proportion were received by SIPO.
Trademarks
A record 4.2 million trademark applications were filed worldwide in 2011. Around 6.2 million classes were specified in these applications. Of the 6.2 million application class counts, residents accounted for 4.5 million and non-residents for 1.7 million.5 Applications grew by 13.3% in 2011, while application class counts saw a 9.6% increase. Rapid growth in filings in China has been the main contributor to growth in recent years. In 2011, China accounted for 61.8% of growth worldwide. The majority of the top 20 offices saw growth in filings in 2011 (based on class count data), with China (31.2%), Brazil (21.6%), the United Kingdom (16.4%) and China Hong Kong, SAR (16.1%) recording the fastest growth. The IP office of India has also seen considerable increases over the past few years. In fact, India surpassed Japan in 2010 and the Republic of Korea in 2011. German applicants filed more than 2.1 million equivalent applications worldwide in 2011.6 Residents of China (1.4 million), the US (1.3 million) and France (1.0 million) were the only three other origins to have filed more than a million applications each. The bulk of Chinese filings were filed domestically. In contrast, the majority of the applications originating in Germany, France and the US were filed abroad.
Industrial Designs
Industrial design applications worldwide grew strongly over the last two years. In 2011, design filings increased by 16%, following 13.9% growth in 2010. This considerable growth was mostly due to strong growth in China. SIPO accounted for 90% of total growth from 2009 to 2011. The 775,700 industrial design applications filed worldwide in 2011 consisted of 691,200 resident and 84,500 nonresident applications. Unlike patents, the list of top 20 offices includes 8 offices located in middle-income countries. China a middle-income country received the largest number of design applications (521,468) in 2011. Turkey, another middle-income country, received 41,218 filings, which is larger than the number of filings at the JPO or the USPTO. Between 2010 and 2011, the IP offices of China (23.8%), India (16.7%), Mexico (17.2%), Turkey (17.6%) and Ukraine (17.5%) each saw rapid growth in filings.
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1. Like patents, UMs protect inventions for a limited period of time. However, the terms and conditions for granting UMs are different from those for traditional patents. In certain countries, UMs are known as petty patents, short-term patents or innovation patents. 2. The income groups correspond to those used by the World Bank. Economies are divided according to 2011 gross national income per capita. 3. The micro-structure and nano-technology field saw 11% growth in 2011, but it accounts for a relatively small number of applications (988 applications in 2011). 4. Technology data are a combination of those taken from the WIPO Statistics Database and the PATSTAT database of the European Patent Office (EPO) (using the April 2012 edition of the PATSTAT database). The latest available data are for 2010. 5. Class counts refer to the number of classes specified in trademark applications. Offices use either single- or multiple-class filing system. Class counts account for this institutional difference and thus enable better comparisons of filing figures across offices. 6. The concept of equivalent applications takes account of the fact that an application at a regional office can cover multiple jurisdictions. Equivalent applications data are expressed in terms of class counts. 7. The International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV Convention) provides a sui generis form of intellectual property protection (plant variety protection or breeders rights). In order to obtain protection, the breeder needs to file individual applications for breeders rights with the authorities entrusted with the task of granting breeders' rights.
For further information, please contact the Media Relations Section at WIPO: Tel: (+41 22) - 338 81 61 Fax: (+41 22) - 338 81 40 E-mail
http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2013/article_0025.html
2013/5/2