 According to a recent report by WIPO, China seems to be in the lead for the race to the top in terms of increase, with
a 33 percent increase in patent filings in 2005 compared with the year before with over 170,000 patents in 2005.
It has moved one place up on the filing list from 2004.
China's leaders have been urging companies to become more creative, and put
more of their money into developing new technology. So the report comes as good news for China's leadership, who have been encouraging
companies to invest in research and development.
China was also the winner in terms of the largest number of patents filed both
by its nationals as well as foreigners, with 42.1 percent and 23.6 percent
growth respectively in 2005 over 2004. Americans, Japanese and Germans topped
the list of patent applications abroad, while China, India, Mexico, Korea and
Russia saw significant increases in foreign filings, the report said.
It is not just China that is seeing a surge in patent filings. The surge can be seen througout Northeast Asia as it is moving into the top of the list in the number of patent filings in
2005 as seen in the WIPO report.
There was a 4.7 percent average annual increase in patent filings worldwide
from 1995 to 2005, fuelled by what WIPO Deputy Director General Francis Gurry,
called “explosive growth” in Northeast Asia. Growth is viewed by many as
positive but Gurry said it is also putting the system under “considerable
stress".
In 2005, patent filings rose 3.6 percent average over 2004, WIPO said. As of
2005, there were some 5.6 million patents in force worldwide, the report said.
Among the top offices for filings Japan topped the list,
followed by the United States, China and Korea, the 2007 WIPO Patent Report
said.
Perhaps with the growth in innovation and increase of patent filings from Chinese nationals, they are recognizing the importance of intellectual property rights and the significane of enforcing these intellectual property rights.
Source: the WIPO Patent Report, 2007 Edition
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