A new WIPO report shows that in 2012 global patent filings increased at its strongest rate in nearly two decades as industrial-design registration notched its best-ever rate of growth. Intellectual property (IP) filings have sharply rebounded since a 2009 decline at the height of the financial crisis.
The report shows patent filings grew by 9.2% (2.35 million applications filed) in 2012. Utility model (UM) filings increased by 23.4%, industrial design filings by 17%, and trademark filings by 6.0%.
The 2013 edition of the World Intellectual Property Indicators also shows that for the first time, China tops the ranking for both the source (filings by China) and the destination (filed in China) for the four types of IP (patents, utility models, trademarks and industrial designs). Of the top five IP offices worldwide, the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO) was alone in recording double-digit growth for each of the four types of IP. Continued rapid filing growth in China is the main driver of global IP growth.
“Following the 2009 financial crisis, global intellectual property (IP) filings and global economic output have followed diverging paths,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. He added “while economic recovery since the 2009 crisis has been uneven and has failed to bring down unacceptably high levels of unemployment, IP filings have increased at a faster rate than before the crisis.”
For more information visit: http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2013/article_0028.html
Source: WIPO
