BEIJING: The patent office in China received the highest number of patent applications globally in 2019, according to a latest report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Monday.
The World Intellectual Property Indicators 2020 report showed that China National Intellectual Property Administration received around 1.4 million patent applications last year. This is more than twice the amount received by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which ranked second with 621,453 applications.
This is the third time China has ranked first in the patent applications since 2017. However, China’s patent applications saw its first decline in 24 years. The change was reportedly attributed to both an optimization of application procedure and improvement of application quality in the country.
According to the report, the number of patent applications worldwide registered more than 3.22 million in 2019, but fell by 3 percent in comparison of that in the previous year, marking the first decline since the 2009 financial crisis.
Asia took up 65 percent of all patents filed worldwide, up nearly 15 percent from 2009. Asia is still the main engine of growth for patent applications in the world, said Daren Tang, Director General of WIPO.
–The Daily Mail-CGTN
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