WIPO's report in Geneva on Nov. 23rd showed that the amount of China's patent applications exceeded a million for the first time in a single year, boosting the global total to a new high.
According to the World Intellectual Property Right Index published on the same day, a total number of 2.9 million applications were filed globally, 7.8% higher than that of 2014, with the patent protection demand growing consecutively for 6 years in a row.
SIPO accepted over 1.1 million patent applications, almost as many as the sum of all patent applications accepted by the second to fourth patent authorities on the list, namely, that of US, Japan and South Korea. Among them, US sits on the second place with around 589, 000 patent applications, Japan and South Korea ranked 3rd and 4th with 318, 000 and 213, 000 patent applications.
Gao Rui, Director General of WIPO, said that policy makers in the world were trying to boost economic growth in 2015, resulting in a favorable development for IP applications. Most countries were increasing their use of IP rights apart from China, signifying the growing importance of IP rights in globalization of knowledge economy.
In 2015, owing to China's growth in patent application, 1.24 million patent applications were accepted globally, marking a year-on-year growth of 5.2%. With 359, 000 patents granted, China surpassed US's 298,000 and ranked the first in terms of patent grant. China also ranked the first in TM and industrial design applications.
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