Intellectual property: record number of patent applications filed
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.
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.
+ Switzerland tops global innovation ranking for 13th consecutive year
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.
More
How a top Swiss university is screening Chinese students
More
Switzerland, the promised land of coats of arms
More
Swiss youth in vocational training seek jobs less prone to automation
More
Ubersitz, the utterly unique – and deafening – Swiss custom
More
Switzerland and UNRWA: timeline of a rocky relationship
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
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.