WIPO released the 2013 edition of World Intellectual Property Indicators, earlier this month. It is based on data from national and regional offices, WIPO, World Bank and UNESCO. In general, it records that there is a shift in filing activity from high income to middle income countries. Another interesting observation is that Asian countries were an important source of inventors.
The total number of patents granted exceeded the 1 million mark in 2012. The report records that patent filings grew by 9.2% in 2012. This is the fastest growth in the past 18 years. Much of that growth has been powered by China both in terms of applications by residents as well as applications received, followed by New Zealand, Mexico and USA. Europe witnessed negative growth in France and Italy though Germany and UK were positive.
Going by areas in which filings were made in India, Belgium and Switzerland were into the field of organic fine chemistry while applications in computer and medical technologies were mostly by Israel and USA.
In respect of trademarks, China again, along with Turkey led the list with Mexico and Russian Federation showing significant increase in class counts. Overall, agriculture and clothing sectors saw largest number of filings, while in India majority of applications related to health sector. Russia led the other in industrial design applications and China, Korea and India showed increase in design counts. The largest number of plant variety applications was from Netherlands, followed by USA and China.