"India is the only nation among the top 20 nations to have increased its patent filing totals each year over the past decade, according to the WIPO report."
Today, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published its annual World Intellectual Property Indicators Report, providing a snapshot of IP filing activities across the globe during 2023. Among the report's key findings is that global patent filing activity increased for the fourth straight year, thanks in large part to continued growth in China and a strong showing from India, which placed among the top ten nations for patents, trademarks and industrial designs. This year's report also underscored the importance of Asian IP filing offices, which received two-thirds of all patent applications filed in 2023.
Of the 3.55 million patent applications filed across the world last year, 1.64 million originated in China, which generated 57,830 additional patent application filings last year. The vast majority of Chinese patent applications were filed domestically, accounting for about 1.5 million of the 1.68 million patent applications received by China's National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) in 2023.
Following China in patent application filings for 2023 was the United States (518,364 filings), Japan (414,413 filings), the Republic of Korea (287,954 filings) and Germany (133,053). In terms of the top IP filing offices, the next four largest patent filing totals behind China last year were in the United States (598,085 filings), Japan (300,133 filings), Korea (243,310 filings) and the European Patent Office (199,429 filings). Patent filing offices in Asia received 68.7% of all patent applications filed in 2023 thanks largely to growth in patent filing totals in China, Korea and Japan.
The largest growth in patent filings by percentage was seen in India, where inventors originated 64,480 patent applications last year, a 15.7% increase over 2022's totals. Ranking sixth behind Germany, India is the only nation among the top 20 nations to have increased its patent filing totals each year over the past decade. Finland was the only other nation to see double-digit percentage growth in patent filings, with an 11.2% increase in filings over 2022's totals.
The United States generated the most patent applications filed abroad last year with 242,467 filings; the U.S. has held the top position in this ranking since 2013. Following the U.S. in this regard was Japan (185,477 filings), China (120,215 filings), Korea (96,812 filings) and Germany (69,584 filings). Korea's strong showing in this year's report was highlighted by the fact that it led the world in patent applications filed per capita as well as per gross domestic product.
Global trademark filings reverted back to pre-COVID-19 totals, falling by 1.3% in 2023 down to 11.6 million filings worldwide. Despite receiving 4.4% fewer trademark applications during 2023, China led all nations when adjusting for trademark class counts, receiving applications claiming marks across 7.2 million total classes. Although the United States received the second most total trademark applications by class, it trailed far behind China with 739,395 classes filed in 2023.
India also made a strong showing in trademarks, receiving the fourth-most trademark applications by class count with 520,862 such filings last year, trailing third-place Russian Federation by about 25,000 classes. Last year marked the first time that India's trademark office surpassed 500,000 filings received in a single year. India also originated the fourth-highest total of trademark applications, rising 6.1% to 496,293 filings in 2023, although third-place Russian Federation saw higher percentage growth at 30.1%, increasing to 543,692 total filings.
Like patents, global filings for industrial designs also increased in 2023, rising 4% to about 1.19 million filings last year. Those global filings included a total of 1.52 million designs, a 2.8 percent increase over 2022. According to a facts and figures webpage published by WIPO, China dominated the rest of the world in industrial design filings in 2023, accounting for a total of 882,807 such filings, an increase of 5% over 2022's totals. Like trademarks, although entities from the United States filed the second-most industrial designs last year, it trailed far behind China with only 69,076 filings, about 5,000 more than third-place Germany.
Finally, WIPO's IP Indicators Report highlighted increases in plant variety filings as well as Europe's strong position in geographical indications (GIs). During 2023, a total of 29,070 plant variety applications were filed worldwide, an increase of 6.6% over 2022's totals. Once again, China took the leading position among national IP offices receiving such filings, accounting for 55.7% of global filings last year with 16,184 plant variety applications. WIPO's survey of GIs show that 58,600 GIs were in force during 2023, more than half of which were in force on European products. Of the global total of GIs in force, the wine and spirits industry enjoyed the greatest amount of protection with 48.1% of all GIs.