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National Institute of Intellectual Property

The number of applications for registration of intellectual property objects in 2015 worldwide

16 July, 2016
The number of applications for registration of intellectual property objects in 2015 worldwide
The United States of America (USA) maintained for a long time they occupy a leading position as a major country of origin of international patent applications filed through the WIPO. The number of international patent applications filed in 2015 in the framework of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) of WIPO, increased by 1.7%, to 218 000 applications, a new record. Innovators based in the USA for the past 38 years, serving the largest number of international patent applications per year. However, to a large extent the overall growth is also associated with a significant increased patent activity among innovators based in China.
In addition, the United States topped the list of countries for the number of international trademark applications under the WIPO Madrid System and continue to strengthen its position within the fast-growing global system of industrial designs, namely administered by WIPO's Hague System, to which they have recently joined together with Japan and the Republic of Korea.
"Filed worldwide application of intellectual property such as patent applications, trademarks and industrial designs, are a good indicator of the intensity of innovations and their geographical distribution, - said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. - This figure tells us that while the United States continues to occupy a leading position, the geography of innovation continues to change, and the countries of Asia, particularly Japan, China and South Korea, form the dominant geographical unit. "
PCT System - International patent applications
The United States, which was filed 57,385 international patent applications, remain the largest user of the PCT system, in spite of the reduction in the number of applications in 2015 by 6.7% after an unusually strong growth in 2014, apparently in connection with the changes in US patent system.
Following the United States are Japan (44 235 applications under the PCT) and China (29,846 applications). The main increase in the overall number of applications falls on China, Japan and Republic of Korea. Thus, from 2005, the share of Asian countries in the total number of applications filed under the PCT has grown more than doubled and now reaches 43%.
Among the top 15 countries of origin requests a significant increase is noted in China (+ 16.8%), the Republic of Korea (+ 11.5%), Israel (+ 7.4%), Switzerland (+ 4.4%), Japan (+ 4.4%) and the Netherlands (+ 3.6%). As in the US case, the number of applications decreased compared to the previous year in Finland (-12.1%) and Canada (-7.2%).
Leading applicants under the PCT
In 2015, a list of top PCT applicants in the procedure led the telecommunications company and the second consecutive year and is headed by the company Huawei Technologies to 3898 published applications under the PCT, which is 456 applications more than in 2014. The second place was occupied in 2015 based company Qualcomm Incorporated in the United States with 2,442 published applications, while the Chinese company ZTE Corporation ranked third with 2155 applications under the PCT.
The top ten applicants, eight US universities included among educational institutions. Topping the list is the University of California published application with 361, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (213 applications), Johns Hopkins University (170 applications), the University of Texas System (163 applications) and Harvard University (158 applications). Eighth place went to Tsinghua University (China), followed by the University of Tokyo (Japan).
Applications under the PCT by field of technology
16,385 published applications - or 8.2% of the total - accounts for the largest proportion of PCT applications, and further followed by the field of digital communications (8%), electronics (7.3%) and medical equipment (6, 3%).
The largest applicant in the field of computer technology is an American company Hewlett-Packard Development Company, followed by Huawei Technologies and Qualcomm. In the field of digital communications biggest applicants were Huawei Technologies, ZTE and Qualcomm. For electronic equipment, the largest number of applications filed, the Japanese company Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, followed by two other Japanese companies, Panasonic Intellectual Property Management and Toyota Jidosha. The largest share in the field of medical technology applications accounted for the company Philips Electronics in the Netherlands, the Japanese company Olympus Corporation and the US company Ethicon Endo-Surgery Inc.
Madrid System - international applications for trademarks
The number of international trademark applications filed under the WIPO-administered Madrid system in 2015 increased by 2.9%, reaching a record level of 49,273 applications. In the US and Australia, accounting for 90% of total growth.
Among the top 10 countries of origin of applications double-digit growth rates in 2015 are marked in the case of Australia (+ 32.3%) and the USA (+ 11.3%), while China (+ 7.9%) and Japan ( + 6%) also achieved high growth rates. In contrast, the growth rate declined in the United Kingdom (-7.3%), the Netherlands (-6.8%) and Switzerland (-3%). The largest user of the Madrid system are also Spain, Turkey and Austria.
See list of top applicants led the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG with 197 applications in 2015, followed by retail trade company LIDL in Germany (152 applications) and the French company L'Oréal (130 applications). The greatest increase in the number of applications among the top 50 applicants in 2015 was demonstrated by another pharmaceutical company, the Hungarian company Richter Gedeon Nyrt (+104 applications).
Three leaders in the number of instructions in international registrations are China (24 849 indications), the USA (21 996 instructions) and the European Union (21 721 designation). Among the 10 most designated countries include India and Mexico, has only recently become members of the Madrid system.
The Hague System - applications for industrial designs
In 2015, the number of international industrial design applications filed under WIPO's Hague System increased by 40%, which was the highest growth since 2008. The number of applications contained in these samples increased in 2015 by 13.8%, which partly due to the expansion of the Hague system, which became the Republic of Korea in 2014, the members, as well as Japan and the United States in 2015. The Republic of Korea has already become the fourth largest user of the Hague system, while the US and Japan finished sixth and ninth place in the number of applications filed.
"Strong growth in the number of applications for industrial designs under the Hague system shows the importance of the appearance of the product to gain a competitive advantage in the market. He is also associated with the accession of the last two years of the Hague Agreement of the three countries with the largest economies - Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United States - which marked an important milestone on the way to becoming this agreement WIPO filing a truly global system",- he said Mr. Gurry.
The largest user of the Hague system is Germany with 3453 samples, in spite of the decrease in the number of its samples by 10.7% compared with the level of 2014, and then followed by Switzerland (3316 samples), France (1317 samples) and the Republic of Korea (1282 samples).
On the first place among the largest users of the Hague system left the company Samsung Electronics in South Korea, having 1132 sample and passed Swiss company Swatch AG (511 samples). Next on the list of the top five applicants are companies Fonkel Meubelmarketing in the Netherlands (438 samples), Volkswagen in Germany (418 samples) and Procter & Gamble in the US (369 samples).
Statistical data WIPO (http://www.wipo.int)