Global patent filings reach record high in 2023: WIPI report

Global patenting activity reached new heights in 2023 as applications surpassed 3.5 million for the first time, marking the fourth consecutive year of growth despite a challenging macroeconomic environment, according to WIPO’s annual World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report, WAM reports. 

The report showed that China (1.64 million), the US (518,364), Japan (414,413), the Republic of Korea (287,954) and Germany (133,053) led global patent filings. Moving up a spot to sixth place, India (64,480) saw a 15.7% increase in patent applications.

India is also for the first time in the top 10 across the three main intellectual property (IP) rights included in the WIPI, with both patent and industrial design applications more than doubling between 2018 and 2023 and trademark applications increasing by 60%.

Global industrial design filing activity also grew in 2023, rising by 2.8% to 1.52 million designs, with seven of the top 20 countries seeing double digit growth. Trademark filing activity totalled 15.23 million classes, reflecting a 2% decline on 2022, though the decrease was much less severe than in the previous year.