The Report was published on August 10 and provides figures from 2005, the most recent year for which full statistics are available.
In the top 20 of offices of filing, China has leapt into third place after seeing the number of patents filed increase by 32.9%. Japan and the US remain in first and second place, with increases of 0.9% and 9.5% respectively.
These three offices, along with KIPO in fourth place and the EPO in fifth, accounted for 77% of all patents filed in 2005 and 74% of all patents granted.
WIPO director general Kamil Idris said: “We are seeing an historic evolution in the geography of innovation ... we expect the pattern of ownership of patent rights worldwide will become more diversified over the coming years.”
But filings have been increasing quicker than the ability of some patent offices to process these applications. According to WIPO the US had more than 900,000 patents pending in 2005, while Japan had more than 800,000.
“The added pressure under which many patent offices are operating has highlighted the extent of duplication of effort in the system. Finding common ground within the international community on how to overcome these bottlenecks is clearly a priority for users of the system who are seeking affordable and efficient IP services,” said WIPO deputy director general Francis Gurry.
The spectacular rise in Asian filings did not include India, which remains a long way behind China, in 11th place, with an increase in filing of only 1.3%.
India also failed to register in the table of PCT international applications by country of origin. China’s PCT applications rose by 56.5% and it is now the ninth largest user of the international system.
The report also includes a section showing the technical fields of patent applications from 2000 to 2004. The most dramatic increases in patent filing, when comparing 2000 and 2004, came in medical technology (32.2%), audio visual technology (28.3%) and information technology (27.7%). The biggest falls came in chemistry and pharmaceuticals.
