Wipo (World Intellectual Property Organization) has shown that 2016 was a record year for international patent applications. Overall, applicants based in the United States maintained their number one ranking for the 39th year running, accounting for roughly a quarter (24.3%) of the 233,000 applications filed under Wipo’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2016 – itself a 7.3 percent year-on-year increase – followed by applicants in Japan (19.4%) and China (18.5%), with the latter driving the overall growth in demand. Digital communications and computer technology showed the greatest activity by sector. In 2016, U.S.-based applicants filed 56,595 PCT applications, followed by applicants from Japan (45,239) and China (43,168), which has posted double-digit growth each year since 2002. If this current trend continues, China will overtake the U.S. within two years as the largest user of the PCT System. Germany and the Republic of Korea with 18,315 and 15,560 applications were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. China and India (1,529) are the only two middle-income countries among the top 15. In total, Asia accounted for 47.4% of total PCT applications, just short of the combined share of Europe (25.6%) and North America (25.3%). Among the top 15, China recorded extraordinary growth (+44.7%), while Italy (+9.3%), Israel (+9.1%), India (+8.3%) and the Netherlands (+8%) also saw strong growth rates. In contrast, Canada (-17.3%) – for the second consecutive year – saw a substantial decline in filings, linked to declining applications from RIM/Blackberry and Nortel. Shenzhen-based telecoms companies – ZTE Corporation (4,123 published PCT applications) and Huawei Technologies (3,692) – occupied the top two spots in the list of top PCT applicants. They were followed by Qualcomm Incorporated (2,466), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (2,053) and LG Electronics (1,888).
