In the top 15 countries of origin of patent applications last year, China was ranked fifth after the United States (45,790), Japan (29,827), Germany (16,736) and South Korea (8,006).
Filing of patent applications under Wipo’s Patent Cooperation Treaty enables companies to secure patent protection in various countries. It is a measure for knowledge-based economy and a barometer to judge the spread of innovation-based companies in each country.
China increased its patent filings 29.7 percent, enough to surpass France and become the fifth largest patent filer to the PCT, meaning that now three of the top five are Asian states. The other two Asian nations in the top five also saw increased performance, though not as dramatic as China’s: Japan’s filings grew 3.6 percent and Korea’s 2.1. The WIPO press release, with a list of these statistics, is available here.