World Intellectual Property Indicators Explained

World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) is an annual statistical report published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).^[1] The publication provides an overview of the activity in the areas of patents, utility models, trademarks, industrial designs, microorganisms, plant variety protection, geographical indications and the creative economy.

The WIPI draws on intellectual property (IP) statistics collected from the 193 member States of WIPO. It provides the latest trends for IP activity at world, geographical region, country and IP office levels. WIPO has published the report annually since 2009.^[2]

Data sources

The IP statistics data presented in the WIPI are taken from the WIPO Statistics Database and based primarily on data collected from national and regional IP offices, other competent authorities and publishers’ associations from around the world, through annual surveys consisting of multiple questionnaires. Data are also compiled by WIPO in processing international applications through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the Madrid System for trademark protection and the Hague System for industrial design protection.^[3]

Patent family and technology data are extracted from the WIPO Statistics Database and from the PATSTAT database of the European Patent Office (EPO).^[4] Gross domestic product, income group classification and population data are from the World Development Indicators database of the World Bank. Geographical regions are those defined by the United Nations.^[3]

Accessing the report and its data

The WIPI is available on WIPO website. Its underlying data can be extracted from the IP Statistics Data Center, which is WIPO’s online statistical database.^[5]

The IP Facts and Figures report, drawn from the WIPI, serves as a quick reference guide for the most frequently used measure of IP activity.^[6] An online statistical country profile also provides a set of IP statistics at the country level^[7]

More comprehensive data and analysis on the WIPO administrated Systems are available in a series of three publications: PCT Yearly Review, Madrid Yearly Review and Hague Yearly Review.^{[8] [9] [10]}

IP Statistics by IP office or by country of origin

Applications received by offices from resident and non-resident applicants are referred to as office data, whereas applications filed by applicants at their national or regional office (resident applications) or at a foreign office (applications filed abroad) are referred to as origin data.^{[3] [11]} For statistical purposes, WIPO defines the origin of an IP application to be the country or territory of residence of the first named applicant in the application.^[3]

Due to the nature of regional offices, the WIPI uses an equivalent application concept for reporting data by origin.^[3] Applications at regional offices are equivalent to multiple applications, one in each of the member states of those offices. For the EPO and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), the equivalent application is counted as one application abroad, if the applicant does not reside in a member state, or as one resident application and one application abroad, if the applicant resides in a member state.^[3]

Latest filing trends by country of origin

The patent, trademark and industrial design data presented in this table come from the WIPI and show the application filing activity trend by country of origin and by year of filing.

Trademark application data refer to class counts – that is, the number of classes specified in applications. This provides the best comparison of international trademark filing activity across origins, because some jurisdictions may allow multiple classes of goods and services to be specified in a single application, whereas others require a separate application for each class. For the same reason, industrial design data refer to design counts, that is, the number of designs contained in applications.

Patents, trademarks, and industrial design filing activity by country of origin^{[12] [13] [14] [15]}

Code	data-sort-type=text	Country / Region	Patent applicationsin 2021	Patent applicationsin 2022	Trademarks applicationsin 2021	Trademarks applicationsin 2022	Industrial design applicationsin 2021	Industrial design applicationsin 2022
AD		27	19	7,588	8,885	0	0
AE		655	843	45,891	60,177	1,265	1,326
AG		408	153	1,940	1,555	2	0
AL		39	35	2,766	1,655	58	778
AM		106	71	5,651	8,278	81	129
AO		0	82	0	0	0	46
AR		717	763	82,468	83,214	1,624	1,583
AT		13,472	13,655	412,197	361,857	82,185	58,736
AU		12,825	11,707	251,488	224,153	18,061	15,867
AZ		338	531	6,165	8,602	81	96
BA		64	73	1,879	2,035	671	172
BB		767	0	17,060	2,646	0	0
BD		91	90	11,010	9,439	1,393	1,225
BE		13,966	14,290	281,983	250,062	35,115	34,668
BF		85	104	6,148	3,270	206	136
BG		466	548	105,124	131,517	13,014	28,711
BH		17	30	1,326	1,945	15	35
BJ		171	71	3,596	2,677	85	51
BN		5	1	737	227	0	0
BO		6	14	4,935	4,910	23	31
BR		6,909	6,984	370,158	380,501	7,920	8,097
BT		0	1	157	93	3	0
BW		4	17	0	0	18	5
BY		1,118	980	12,272	7,985	462	670
BZ		21	17	0	0	59	0
CA		26,525	25,562	235,899	202,119	17,985	15,352
CF		17	0	70	97	0	17
CG		71	52	707	421	17	0
CH		48,336	51,445	567,109	518,055	117,813	116,156
CI		697	562	19,631	14,692	1,360	3,074
CL		930	823	66,205	53,486	189	92
CM		1,074	803	13,245	11,159	631	426
CN		1,538,604	1,586,339	11,170,624	8,561,984	1,512,861	1,408,921
CO		692	1,317	42,743	61,046	636	783
CR		130	135	10,914	11,990	13	4
CU		112	0	2,521	4,161	14	0
CV		1	2	147	110	0	0
CW		0	0	2,403	4,315	0	0
CY		417	295	91,783	81,971	9,184	4,604
CZ		1,922	1,887	199,534	173,176	24,605	25,309
DE		165,826	157,652	2,947,580	2,552,542	540,700	489,507
DJ		3	1	41	52	0	9
DK		14,100	14,525	195,921	171,314	58,229	44,638
DM		5	1	93	19	0	0
DO		46	51	11,094	12,135	44	64
DZ		281	483	11,857	12,252	900	855
EC		51	45	15,497	15,367	107	89
EE		350	273	74,596	70,390	5,773	4,845
EG		997	866	46,684	43,102	2,276	2,069
ES		10,880	10,518	794,344	789,031	101,588	118,365
ET		0	39	1,443	1,924	0	60
FI		12,826	12,972	174,836	152,511	25,455	19,972
FR		66,137	66,446	1,251,047	1,194,182	227,890	217,619
GA		359	103	1,228	1,299	204	85
GB		53,650	54,620	1,198,871	1,093,675	135,245	131,371
GD		1	0	26	10	0	0
GE		132	97	4,618	3,750	113	247
GH		0	11	0	1,097	0	673
GM		0	0	121	405	0	0
GN		52	51	5,045	4,175	1,003	1,020
GQ		0	0	187	459	1	0
GR		1,387	1,238	0	0	11,758	11,803
GT		15	12	0	0	83	19
GW		0	0	426	391	51	85
GY		40	0	0	117	1	0
HK		3,261	2,459	139,559	112,271	27,295	25,074
HN		2	2	2,950	3,062	0	1
HR		304	290	30,779	36,255	5,867	5,281
HU		1,466	1,145	69,947	63,856	5,132	6,274
ID		1,445	1,607	97,170	113,162	3,123	3,708
IE		7,061	7,464	0	0	15,625	9,799
IL		17,341	17,327	44,060	48,990	10,163	10,107
IN		43,163	56,396	477,121	499,674	19,774	22,409
IQ		0	0	2,756	1,193	0	0
IR		10,350	8,391	511,868	357,669	13,937	8,170
IS		371	313	6,133	5,747	38	0
IT		34,206	32,021	1,238,081	1,178,542	350,437	369,347
JM		23	13	2,936	0	94	154
JO		53	64	6,321	6,366	322	251
JP		412,885	406,374	555,273	549,015	94,374	91,683
KE		199	396	0	5,475	126	99
KG		120	132	845	981	30	20
KH		0	41	0	0	0	1
KM		0	0	138	36	0	0
KP		0	0	0	5,234	0	0
KR		267,527	272,675	471,725	449,639	116,693	103,174
KW		0	0	0	7,801	114	17
KZ		0	1,297	17,109	18,309	283	231
LA		0	0	0	0	0	1
LI		1,482	1,480	15,328	12,723	3,215	2,853
LK		329	260	7,725	6,980	227	361
LT		477	642	62,935	61,635	5,327	5,055
LU		2,725	2,580	98,061	88,768	8,992	6,304
LV		281	246	27,774	26,106	2,504	2,481
MA		399	363	106,422	52,405	3,924	5,082
MC		137	154	15,384	15,953	431	229
MD		75	54	6,253	5,257	749	528
ME		0	11	0	0	0	2
MG		6	9	3,275	3,441	328	338
MK		73	53	4,585	8,860	172	265
ML		194	55	5,760	3,514	206	121
MN		113	138	19,487	10,415	1,391	1,088
MO		163	27	3,660	3,108	245	14
MR		36	85	2,466	982	0	34
MT		407	441	78,933	67,790	13,822	4,802
MU		165	401	8,607	5,798	63	115
MX		1,994	1,815	165,547	162,780	1,756	1,439
MY		1,863	1,760	33,696	27,650	721	990
MZ		30	25	1,606	788	35	52
NA		0	39	0	488	0	38
NE		68	87	815	809	0	0
NL		32,779	32,738	609,122	582,247	97,770	91,971
NO		5,841	5,974	94,151	78,970	8,504	6,936
NZ		2,682	2,588	55,614	48,773	5,992	6,666
OM		100	88	6,819	8,074	17	108
PA		70	0	12,385	0	197	0
PE		160	234	32,316	31,278	98	117
PG		4	4	329	112	0	0
PH		695	674	37,610	38,417	720	685
PK		491	416	44,595	39,967	485	467
PL		5,916	6,073	500,481	477,735	158,341	155,846
PT		1,986	2,035	168,643	146,295	24,697	23,863
PY		14	11	17,189	14,791	9	1
QA		121	0	10,722	8,241	0	0
RO		1,114	1,140	130,737	162,185	9,686	14,391
RS		271	230	16,773	14,102	933	685
RU		25,904	25,188	417,882	447,229	11,773	10,849
RW		16	9	721	777	10	5
SA		4,868	5,019	32,263	39,991	1,096	968
SC		51	46	5,540	4,641	27	0
SE		27,802	28,184	400,733	352,825	48,800	48,682
SG		9,766	8,599	105,298	109,348	15,301	6,519
SI		744	811	48,379	53,579	4,451	7,638
SK		414	557	62,093	53,820	6,498	3,808
SL		0	0	0	237	4	0
SM		58	48	0	0	486	605
SN		606	583	12,560	9,702	425	493
SO		0	0	15	30	0	0
SR		0	0	529	116	0	0
ST		0	0	4	48	0	0
SV		2	4	5,611	5,441	16	20
SY		106	131	0	0	485	451
TD		51	119	163	129	119	51
TG		81	85	6,982	3,390	85	34
TH		1,548	1,416	43,547	39,009	4,764	4,149
TJ		97	33	0	0	1	0
TN		0	225	0	5,760	0	547
TO		0	0	7	5	0	4
TR		10,869	11,114	503,741	579,543	78,829	94,792
TT		15	7	956	1,443	60	12
UA		1,706	1,080	64,201	46,691	6,149	3,000
UG		20	16	2,233	2,186	91	56
US		509,962	515,281	2,169,465	2,009,487	392,258	366,686
UY		0	0	9,057	8,386	0	0
UZ		428	475	10,955	13,879	240	236
VC		0	2	386	601	0	0
VE		0	29	0	8,329	0	19
VN		1,205	1,057	86,109	92,118	2,561	2,755
VU		0	0	196	362	4	6
WS		17	0	865	880	0	9
YE		22	13	5,709	3,702	80	56
ZA		2,751	2,619	36,851	32,164	1,614	1,714
ZM		15	14	1,284	1,264	46	81
ZW		0	41	0	1,341	19	38

Controversies

Taiwanese patents

Since Taiwan (ROC) is not a member of the United Nations, the number of patents filed in Taiwan is not reported. The number of patent applications filed with the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) in 2018 was 73,431,^[16] which would place it in 6th place worldwide for that year, or 2nd place per capita. In 2014, Bloomberg ranked Taiwan #1 in Patent Activity, using UN data.^{[17] [18]} The last WIPO Indicators report to mention the name Taiwan was in 2017, noting the large number of patents by Foxconn.^{[19] [20] [21] [22]}

China has been criticized for its efforts in the UN to reduce the visibility of Taiwan,^{[23] [24]} including via WIPO; in 2020 Beijing reportedly retaliated to the failed election of a Chinese director-general of the organization by preventing the Wikimedia Foundation from gaining observer status at the WIPO, on the grounds that Wikimedia has a Taiwan subsidiary.^{[25] [26] [27]}

External links

• World Intellectual Property Organization
• WIPO IP Statistics Data Center

Notes and References

1. Web site: World Intellectual Property Indicators . www.wipo.int.
2. Web site: WIPO IP Statistics Data Center . 2021-08-27 . www3.wipo.int.
3. Web site: World Intellectual Property Indicators 2021 . World Intellectual Property Organization . 28 April 2022. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
4. Web site: Office . European Patent . PATSTAT. Worldwide Patent Statistical Database . 2022-04-27 . www.epo.org . en.
5. Web site: Intellectual Property Statistics . 2022-04-27 . www.wipo.int . en.
6. Web site: Publications: WIPO IP Facts and Figures . 2022-04-27 . www.wipo.int . en.
7. Web site: Statistical Country Profiles . 2022-04-27 . www.wipo.int . en.
8. Web site: Publications: PCT Yearly Review . 2022-04-27 . www.wipo.int . en.
9. Web site: Publications: Madrid Yearly Review . 2022-04-27 . www.wipo.int . en.
10. Web site: Publications: Hague Yearly Review . 2022-04-27 . www.wipo.int . en.
11. Web site: About WIPO's IP Statistics . 2022-04-27 . www.wipo.int . en. Text was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
12. World Intellectual Property Indicators 2021 . 2022-04-27 . www.wipo.int . 10.34667/tind.44461 . en . World Intellectual Property Organization. .
13. World Intellectual Property Indicators 2020 . 2022-04-27 . www.wipo.int . 10.34667/tind.42184 . en . World Intellectual Property Organization. .
14. World Intellectual Property Indicators 2019. 2021-08-26. www.wipo.int. 10.34667/tind.40353 . en . World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) .
15. Web site: World Intellectual Property Organization . World Intellectual Property Indicators 2023 . 2024-06-25 . www.wipo.int . en.
16. Web site: TIPO Statistics Report: Patent and Trademark Applications in 2018 . Taiwan Intellectual Property Office . 18 March 2019 . 21 February 2021.
17. Web site: Lu . Wei . Chan . Marcus . In Global Innovation Race, Taiwan Is Tops in Patents, Israel Leads in R&D - Bloomberg . Bloomberg . 18 September 2021 . 6 August 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170806221948/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-22/in-global-innovation-race-taiwan-is-tops-in-patents-israel-leads-in-r-d.html . 2017-08-06 .
18. Web site: MOST INNOVATIVE IN THE WORLD 2014: COUNTRIES . Bloomberg . 13 March 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160313221529/http://images.businessweek.com/bloomberg/pdfs/most_innovative_countries_2014_011714.pdf . 2016-03-13 .
19. Web site: World Intellectual Property Indicators 2017 . WIPO . World Intellectual Property Organization.
20. Web site: World Intellectual Property Indicators 2018 . WIPO . World Intellectual Property Organization.
21. Web site: World Intellectual Property Indicators 2019 . WIPO . World Intellectual Property Organization.
22. Web site: World Intellectual Property Indicators 2020 . WIPO . World Intellectual Property Organization.
23. News: Horton . Chris . Blocked by China, Taiwan Presses to Join U.N. Agency's Meeting . 21 February 2021 . The New York Times . 8 May 2017.
24. News: Lee . Kristine . It's Not Just the WHO: How China Is Moving on the Whole U.N. . 21 February 2021 . POLITICO . en.
25. News: Glosserman . Brad . China loses a skirmish in fight for global influence . 21 February 2021 . The Japan Times . 9 March 2020.
26. News: Hui . Mary . Beijing blocked Wikimedia from a UN agency because of "Taiwan-related issues" . 21 February 2021 . Quartz . en . 25 September 2020.
27. News: Magnier . Mark . Beijing blocks Wikipedia from UN agency to resist 'Western values': analysts . 21 February 2021 . South China Morning Post . 30 September 2020 . en.