On March 2, the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) released the data of the international filings for patents, trademarks and industrial designs in 2020.

In 2020, international PCT applications grew by 4% to reach 275,900, which is the highest number ever. The top five countries in PCT filings were China (68,720), the U.S. (59,230), Japan (50,520), the Republic of Korea (20,060) and Germany (18,643). The top five countries in international trademark application via WIPO's Madrid System for the international Registration of Marks were the U.S.(10,005), Germany (7334), China (7075), France (3716) and the U.K. (3679).

Among the top ten origins, China (+16.4%) is the only country record double-digit growth in 2020. In terms of international design system, despite a substantial decrease, Germany remained the largest user of the international design system. Among the top ten origins, the U.S. (+62.7%), Turkey (+34.7%) and China (+22.7%) are the only three countries to record growth in 2020.

Despite the impact of COVID-19, the number of Chinese patent application filings through the PCT system has continued to grow. China filed 68,720 PCT applications in 2020, up 16.1%, continuing to lead the world in this field.

Chinese companies and universities are excelling in PCT filings. For the fourth consecutive year, China's Huawei Company was the top filer in 2020 with 5,464 published PCT applications , followed by Samsung Electronics of the Republic of Korea  (3,093), Mitsubishi Electric Corp. of Japan (2,801), LG Electronics Inc. of the Republic of Korea (2,759) and Qualcomm Inc. of the U.S. (2,173). The top ten-university list comprises five universities from China, which were Shenzhen University, Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University, Dalian University of Technology and South China University of Technology.

https://english.cnipa.gov.cn/art/2021/3/6/art_2509_157298.html

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