UN says China still remains biggest source of applications for international patents
China's President Xi Jinping
The United Nations has said that China remainsthe biggest source of applications for internationalpatents in the world in 2020 for the second consecutive year.
China hasextended its lead over the number two filer the United States, the U.N.patentagency said on Tuesday.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which oversees a system for countries to share recognition ofpatents, said China filed 68,720 applications last year while the United States filed 59,230.
The rate of increase was higher for China with a 16.1 per centyear-on-year increase versus 3 per centfor the United States, it added. China first knocked the United States from the top spot in 2019.
Daren Tang, WIPO director-general, said the rise in Chinese filings was part of a longer-term trend for higher applications from Asia more broadly, with South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia all submitting more applications last year.
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"It's not as if filings from the traditional parts of the world like the USor Europe have decreased, it's just that the rate, the acceleration, has become a lot stronger in Asia," he told journalists.
The region accounted for more than half of all filings via WIPO's system known as thePatentCooperation Treaty versus just over a third ten years ago.
Unlike after the 2008 financial crisis when filings fell sharply, overall filings via WIPO's system were up 4 per centoverall in 2020 to a new record despite the COVID-19-induced slowdown, it said.
"The trend is that innovation remains resilient and the sense is that the world needs more innovation ... during a crisis," said Tang.
The biggest single filer under this system last year was China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd for the fourth consecutive year and second was South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, WIPO said.
Singapore's Tang began his term in October and received strong support from Western countries including the United States in a highly politicised race against a Chinese candidate for the top job last year.