China Drives Global Patent Filings to Record 2.9 Million in 2015 Amid Rising IP Demand

Innovators in China propelled global patent applications to a historic high in 2015, surpassing one million filings for the first time within a single year. This milestone contributed to a total of approximately 2.9 million patent applications worldwide, representing a 7.8% increase over 2014 and marking the sixth consecutive year of growth in patent demand, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) annual World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report.

Trademark applications experienced a robust 15.3% rise, reaching about 6 million filings globally, while industrial design applications grew by 2.3% to 872,800. These increases reflect a broad-based expansion in intellectual property rights filings that underpin economic activity worldwide.

Chinese innovators led the patent application rankings with 1,010,406 filings in 2015, followed by the United States with 526,296 and Japan with 454,285. However, Chinese applicants predominantly filed within their home country, submitting 42,154 patent applications abroad. In contrast, U.S.-based innovators were the most internationally oriented, filing 237,961 patent applications outside the United States.

WIPO Director General Francis Gurry commented, “As policy-makers seek to invigorate growth around the world, it is encouraging to report that intellectual property filing activity saw healthy progression in 2015. While China continues to drive global increases, IP use grew in most countries in 2015, reflecting its increasing importance in a globalized knowledge economy.”

Resident filings, where innovators seek protection in their home economies, accounted for approximately two-thirds of the total patent applications in 2015. China’s patent office received 1,101,864 filings, becoming the first patent office to surpass one million applications in a single year. This figure includes both domestic and foreign filings, nearly matching the combined total of the next three largest offices: the United States (589,410), Japan (318,721), and the Republic of Korea (213,694).

The top five patent offices, including the European Patent Office (EPO) with 160,028 filings, accounted for 82.5% of global patent applications. Among these, China experienced the fastest growth at 18.7%, followed by the EPO at 4.8%, the U.S. at 1.8%, and the Republic of Korea at 1.6%. Japan’s patent office saw a 2.2% decline, continuing a downward trend since 2005 primarily due to reduced resident filings.

U.S. applicants led in foreign patent filings with 237,961 applications abroad, a 6% increase from the previous year. Japanese applicants filed 195,446 applications abroad, a 2.3% decrease, while German applicants’ foreign filings dropped 3.6% to 101,892. Although Chinese innovators filed fewer applications overseas, their number of foreign filings has steadily increased over two decades and now nearly equals France’s total of 46,581.

In terms of technology sectors, computer technology accounted for the highest share of published patent applications worldwide at 7.9%, followed by electrical machinery at 7.3% and digital communication at 4.9%.

Patent grants worldwide reached approximately 1.24 million in 2015, a 5.2% increase over 2014 and the fastest growth rate since 2012. This surge was largely driven by China, which issued 359,316 patents, surpassing the United States (298,407) as the largest patent issuing office.

An estimated 10.6 million patents were in force globally in 2015. The United States held about 24.9% of these active patents, followed by Japan with 18.3% and China with 13.9%.

Trademark filings totaled an estimated 6 million applications covering 8.4 million classes worldwide in 2015. China led this growth with a class count of 2.83 million, followed by the United States (517,297), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO; 366,383), Japan (345,070), and India (289,843). Notably, Japan (+43%), Italy (+32.6%), China (+27.4%), India (+21.9%), and the Republic of Korea (+13.9%) reported double-digit growth in trademark filings.

Trademark registrations also surged, with 4.4 million registrations covering 6.2 million classes recorded globally in 2015. This represented a 26.6% increase over 2014, the fastest growth in over 15 years.

Industrial design applications rebounded in 2015, growing by 2.3% after a sharp decline in 2014 due to reduced filings in China. Designers worldwide filed 872,800 applications encompassing 1.1 million designs. Growth was primarily driven by increased filings in China, the Republic of Korea, and the United States.

China’s patent office received applications containing 569,059 designs, accounting for half of the global total. The EUIPO (98,162), the Republic of Korea (72,458), Germany (56,499), and Turkey (45,852) followed. Among these, the Republic of Korea (+5.9%) and China (+0.8%) saw growth, while Germany (-7.5%), Turkey (-6%), and the EUIPO (-0.1%) experienced declines in design filings compared to 2014.