The 2024 World Intellectual Property Indicators report, published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), reveals some interesting statistics to take into consideration as your company strategizes its patent filing options. Here are some highlights:
- 2023 saw a record-breaking number of worldwide patent application filings: 3.55 million. The main driver of the growth rate in 2023 was a significant rise in filings with the China Patent Office (CNIPA) well as hefty contributions from the South Korea, U.S., Japan, and Indian patent offices.
- The top five patent offices (China, U.S., Japan, South Korea, and Europe) accounted for 85% of the world’s total application filings in 2023.
- CNIPA received a whopping 47.2% of the world’s patent applications in 2023 – up from 32.2% in 2013.
- Asian patent offices received nearly 69% of all the world’s patent applications filed in 2023.
- The Indian Patent Office saw a second straight year of double-digit growth in application filings – driven largely by substantial growth in resident filings.
- U.S. applicants filed more patent applications abroad than any other nation in 2023, at about 240,000 applications.
- The Indian Patent Office granted 149.4% more patents in 2023 than 2022.
- The European Patent Office also granted more patents in 2023 after experiencing a decline the previous year.
- Worldwide, the grant rate increased by over 10% in 2023 – the fastest rate in over 10 years.
To learn more, access the report here:
Well-researched and thoughtful selection from the many patent application filing options, and tapping the skills of a competent patent attorney, can be essential to optimizing your company’s IP.
Various ranked lists of countries, which are freely available on-line, can help you estimate demand, pricing, and profitability for your potentially patented products and/or processes in each country of interest. The CIA’s World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) provides dozens of lists of countries, each ranked by topics such as: GDP growth rate, investment, inflation rate, industrial production growth rate, exports, imports, population growth rate, birth rate, life expectancy, education expenditures, internet users, military expenditures, etc. Based on such information, you can more easily identify the most appropriate countries in which to seek patent protection.