China applies for the most international patents in the world

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released statistics on international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2023 on March 13. The data showed that last year, the total number of international patent applications worldwide was 272,600, down 1.8% from 2022.

China was the country with the largest number of applications in the world with 69,610 applications, down 0.6% from 2022.

The US ranked second with 55,678 applications, down 5.3% from a year earlier.

Japan, South Korea and Germany followed, respectively. South Korea was the only country in the top five to see an increase in international patent applications last year, up 1.2% to 22,288.

India had the biggest increase, with international patent applications rising 44.6% to 3,791.

Huawei's main building at a manufacturing site near Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China. (Photo: Getty Images)

In terms of companies, China's Huawei Technologies Group was the world's largest applicant with 6,494 applications. South Korea's Samsung ranked second, followed by the US's Qualcomm, Japan's Mitsubishi Electric and China's BOE Technology.

Among the top 10 companies filing the most international patent applications, Chinese battery technology and manufacturing company CATL made the biggest jump, moving from 84th to 8th place with 1,533 applications.

Among published PCT international patent applications, computer technology accounted for the largest share, at 10.2%. This was followed by the fields of digital communications, electrical machinery, medical technology and pharmaceuticals. The number of applications in these five fields accounted for about two-fifths of all published PCT applications in 2023.

“In an increasingly globalized and digitalized economy, the use of intellectual property rights has been growing steadily and expanding globally in tandem with the economic development of countries around the world,” said Daren Tang, Director General of WIPO. “Asian countries now account for 55.7 percent of PCT international patent applications filed through WIPO, compared to only 40.5 percent 10 years ago.”

Hua Yu (Source: Global Times)

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