The number of patent applications worldwide reached a new record last year: 3.46 million, an increase of almost 1.8% on the previous year. China is still in the lead, said the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Monday.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Chinese innovators continue to file almost half the world’s applications, at 1.58 million, compared with almost 506,000 for the United States and more than 405,000 for Japan. But the rate of growth in these applications has fallen for the second year running, from almost 7% to 3.1%.
For its part, Switzerland, in seventh place, was able to report a significant increase of 6.1 percentage points. More than four out of five Swiss applications were launched from other countries.
WIPO Director General Daren Tang once again warned of the effects of political tensions and economic uncertainty. Developing countries are increasingly fuelling intellectual property, he said. But public funding for venture capital is declining in several regions.
Asia leading the way
In terms of trademarks, an estimated 11.8 million applications were filed, down by more than 15%, covering more than 15 million brands. Here again, China leads the way, ahead of the United States.
More than two-thirds of filings took place in Asia. Nearly 83 million trademarks were active in 2021, more than half of them in China.
For industrial designs, around 1.1 million applications for some 1.5 million components were filed last year, down by just over 2%. China is also in the lead. Overall, more than 70% of filings took place in Asia.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
What factors should be taken into account when inheriting Swiss citizenship abroad?
Should there be a limit to the passing on of Swiss citizenship? Or is the current practice too strict and it should still be possible to register after the age of 25?
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
Trump tariffs: ‘I’m a bit perplexed’, says former US ambassador to Switzerland
This content was published on
The former US ambassador to Switzerland, Edward McMullen, says he is optimistic for the Alpine country with regard to the 31% tariff on imports imposed by US President Donald Trump.
Swiss Federal Court upholds Beny Steinmetz’s bribery conviction
This content was published on
Switzerland's highest court has upheld the conviction of French-Israeli mining magnate Beny Steinmetz for bribery of foreign public officials.
This content was published on
The Trump administration has imposed a 31% tariff on imports from Switzerland. Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter has warned against "giving in to alarmism" in an interview published on Saturday,
This content was published on
Scientists have shown that bonobos combine their calls into complex sound sequences that resemble combinations of human words.
This content was published on
US parliamentarians have threatened the UN Human Rights Council with sanctions similar to those against the International Criminal Court (ICC).
This content was published on
Thanks to abundant snowfall, lift operators benefited from increased visitor numbers, with the number of guests jumping by 12% year-on-year.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.