WIPO Reports Uptick In IP Filings In 2010

The World Intellectual Property Organization today released a report showing global filings for patents and trademarks turned upward in 2010. But there were some variations across the map.

Global patent filings increased 7.2 percent, while trademark filings rose 11.8 percent, WIPO said. These increases followed a drop in 2009, and in many cases outstripped growth in countries’ gross domestic product (GDP).

Some 909,000 patents were granted in 2010, a 12.4 percent increase over 2009. The United States and Japan accounted for 80 percent of total growth. In 2010, there were an estimated 7.3 million patents in force, including some 2 million in the United States and 1.4 million in Japan. Patents pending and unprocessed were reduced for the second year in a row.

China had the largest growth in patent applications received, 24.3 percent, and overtook Japan as the top country for patent filings by residents. But only 5 percent of Chinese applications were filed outside China. The European Patent Office had 12.2 percent growth, Singapore 11.9 percent, and Russia 10.2 percent. The United States Patent and Trademark Office saw 7.5 percent growth in patent filings after two years of zero growth, WIPO said.

A record number of utility patents were filed in 2010, mainly by China, where they increased by 24 percent. China accounted for 83 percent of the record 476,000 utility patents filed globally.

There were 18 million trademarks in force worldwide.

The report also includes data on industrial designs.

The WIPO press release and link to report is here.