WIPO Releases Report on IP Activity

By Donald Zuhn --

Last month, the World Intellectual Property Organization released a report that provides an overview of worldwide intellectual property activity through 2009, the most recent year for which complete data was available.  The 26-page report, entitled "WIPO IP Facts and Figures 2011," covers patents, utility models, trademarks, and industrial designs, compiling IP statistics collected from 90 IP offices around the world.

While the report indicates that the patent application filings rose by an average of 2.2% annually between 2005 and 2009, the report notes that patent filings fell 3.1% from 2008 to 2009.  In particular, the report shows that worldwide patent filings rose from 1,692,000 in 2005 to 1,908,000 in 2008 before falling to 1,849,000 in 2009.  The news was better with respect to patent grants, as the number of issued patents rose every year between 2005 and 2009, climbing from 632,000 grants in 2005 to 826,000 grants in 2009; patent grants exhibited a 6.9% annual growth between 2005 and 2009, with growth from 2008 to 2009 hitting 6.2%.

In a comparison of resident and non-resident filings, the report shows that for patent applications, non-resident filings (42.7%) come close to matching resident filings (57.3%).  In contrast, for trademark, industrial design, and utility model applications, the large majority of filings are made by resident applicants.

According to the report, the top 10 IP Offices for patent application filings in 2009 were:

The report notes that approximately 87% of all patent applications filed in 2009 were filed in the ten Offices listed above, and that approximately 60% of all patent applications were filed in the U.S., Japan, and China.

The report notes that additional IP data can be found at the WIPO website.

Comments

[patent litigation]

I do hope that there is truth to recent suggestions that the number of patent applications is again on the rise. In any case, the data regarding increased patent grant rates is certainly good news. One hopes that, with the USPTO's fee hike, Track One program, Detroit office, and other such programs, the patent office can continue to cut into its massive backlog.
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