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 the regional offices, the WIPI may use an equivalent count concept for some indicators when reporting data by country of origin.^[3] When this counting method is used, an application filed at a regional IP office is equivalent to filing an application in every member state of that office. To calculate the number of equivalent applications for the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO), the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the GCC Patent Office, each application is multiplied by the corresponding number of member states. For example, an application filed at the EUIPO in 2022 by an applicant residing outside the EU is counted as 27 applications abroad – equal to the number of EU member countries, whereas an application filed by an EU resident results in a count of 1 resident application and 26 applications abroad. However, the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO) do not register applications with an automatic region-wide applicability. Therefore, for these offices, each application is counted as one application abroad, if the applicant does not reside within a member state, or as one resident application and one application abroad, if the applicant resides within a member state.

Latest filing trends by country of origin

The patent, trademark and industrial design data presented in this table show the filing activity trend by country of origin and by year of filing. Data come from the WIPO Statistics Database^[12], which is the source of the WIPI. The data presented in this table include those received too late to be included in the WIPI and are not based on the equivalent count concept, described above.

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^{[13] [14]}

Code	data-sort-type=text	Country	Patent applicationsin 2022	Patent applicationsin 2023	Trademarks applicationsin 2022	Trademarks applicationsin 2023	Industrial design applicationsin 2022	Industrial design applicationsin 2023
AD		19	14	2,177	1,008	0	0
AE		806	1,005	26,757	30,401	244	341
AG		153	62	883	219	1	0
AL		28	28	1,523	2,138	50	234
AM		64	85	7,298	6,766	129	81
AO		0	0	0	3,762	46	0
AR		768	679	77,154	74,487	1,453	1,385
AT		11,088	10,866	49,745	43,595	4,812	5,067
AU		11,521	11,215	129,884	125,423	4,739	5,505
AZ		216	248	8,410	7,897	89	31
BA		73	76	1,413	1,658	68	237
BB		0	0	930	1,092	221	97
BD		90	86	9,105	8,998	1,225	1,001
BE		10,876	10,642	35,464	35,748	2,966	3,143
BF		8	6	198	428	8	18
BG		460	448	33,673	29,347	1,798	1,190
BH		23	42	885	915	9	18
BI		1	0	120	123	0	15
BJ		7	27	165	212	3	6
BN		1	0	201	215	0	0
BO		14	0	4,884	0	31	0
BR		6,940	7,302	364,220	395,165	5,575	5,768
BT		1	1	93	117	0	2
BW		16	23	0	1,541	5	14
BY		455	430	6,333	7,743	292	336
BZ		17	14	0	0	0	1
CA		25,064	24,145	99,112	92,628	3,309	4,154
CF		0	1	17	23	1	0
CG		4	4	29	90	0	8
CH		40,153	41,975	163,513	146,394	22,495	22,926
CI		34	19	904	1,066	150	165
CL		825	878	48,342	50,612	66	87
CM		51	48	673	753	26	127
CN		1,584,677	1,642,582	7,678,101	7,417,473	841,163	882,809
CO		1,304	432	55,927	35,888	549	542
CR		112	122	9,754	14,630	4	0
CU		0	247	3,435	3,536	0	5
CV		2	2	110	106	0	0
CW		0	0	799	821	0	0
CY		231	282	17,409	16,031	0	0
CZ		1,590	1,484	30,223	29,722	2,273	1,658
DE		131,235	133,140	475,911	441,310	70,353	64,986
DJ		1	0	52	0	9	0
DK		11,172	10,905	27,482	25,506	3,910	3,790
DM		1	1	19	96	0	0
DO		51	27	10,731	10,939	12	9
DZ		483	1,411	11,868	14,294	855	1,216
EC		45	60	14,951	14,115	89	52
EE		171	282	7,282	7,160	321	345
EG		866	812	39,862	48,959	1,887	0
ES		8,400	8,191	125,209	129,437	16,827	20,721
ET		39	61	1,898	1,395	60	106
FI		10,471	11,659	24,249	19,434	1,527	1,793
FR		54,300	52,684	414,848	385,096	47,407	45,915
GA		7	11	83	90	5	10
GB		47,847	48,297	377,300	356,863	37,302	45,370
GD		0	0	14	40	0	0
GE		97	112	3,304	4,171	235	431
GH		11	12	749	817	661	345
GM		0	0	150	159	0	32
GN		3	2	255	318	60	80
GQ		0	0	27	17	0	0
GR		1,045	1,056	0	0	1,715	1,471
GT		12	9	8,981	8,121	19	8
GW		0	0	23	29	5	4
GY		0	0	117	77	0	0
HK		2,454	1,864	46,115	48,143	2,473	2,398
HN		2	3	2,672	3,227	1	0
HR		251	313	9,139	7,470	783	415
HU		999	1,048	12,644	14,036	640	709
ID		1,607	1,727	109,869	120,883	3,604	4,949
IE		6,136	5,936	0	0	985	1,440
IL		17,127	15,410	15,750	13,205	1,917	1,812
IN		55,746	64,510	467,890	496,326	19,777	26,966
IQ		0	746	907	0	0	0
IR		8,391	8,653	354,741	321,463	8,170	7,796
IS		258	220	2,111	2,350	0	86
IT		26,471	26,864	193,825	196,903	52,287	60,486
JM		13	15	0	2,843	154	0
JO		64	57	4,724	5,620	95	107
JP		405,373	414,479	381,826	349,693	34,512	34,589
KE		392	390	5,233	6,022	93	158
KG		83	85	981	1,373	20	16
KH		18	23	2,643	2,234	1	14
KI		0	0	0	5	0	0
KM		0	1	4	10	0	0
KN		13	7	395	596	0	0
KP		6,834	6,915	5,208	9,477	0	0
KR		272,326	288,001	342,090	334,038	62,263	60,120
KW		0	0	6,173	0	17	0
KZ		814	833	17,109	26,846	156	161
LA		0	4	0	1,106	1	3
LC		0	0	158	151	0	0
LI		1,024	921	2,991	2,969	563	210
LK		260	299	6,532	8,428	335	198
LR		0	1	1,308	423	12	52
LT		556	449	6,392	8,521	437	440
LU		2,095	2,260	14,384	13,794	742	674
LV		217	236	4,528	3,736	245	199
MA		317	451	34,855	25,949	4,190	4,549
MC		133	102	3,437	4,296	73	115
MD		54	47	4,367	4,258	384	197
ME		11	18	0	0	2	11
MG		9	3	3,441	3,206	338	242
MK		44	30	4,514	3,154	31	53
ML		7	17	250	322	9	29
MM		0	0	0	19,710	0	0
MN		131	81	10,221	8,490	1,062	537
MO		27	10	2,614	2,976	14	27
MR		5	11	102	75	2	1
MT		361	283	8,416	9,885	902	1,114
MU		253	215	3,342	3,966	73	144
MX		1,769	1,774	148,327	164,776	1,179	1,162
MY		1,753	1,649	24,424	27,616	652	778
MZ		25	20	788	1,647	52	37
NA		39	72	486	0	38	0
NE		7	13	57	40	0	1
NL		25,257	25,921	86,840	83,689	9,141	8,149
NO		4,995	4,740	19,838	16,154	1,346	1,647
NZ		2,569	2,622	29,846	29,915	1,424	1,106
OM		91	437	7,762	7,908	30	0
PE		234	234	29,560	31,355	117	128
PG		4	0	112	0	0	0
PH		674	927	37,766	37,832	607	874
PK		416	506	39,429	44,929	467	625
PL		5,316	5,944	54,990	61,730	8,425	7,003
PT		1,716	1,638	37,953	41,217	2,151	2,030
PY		11	0	14,609	14,726	1	12
QA		0	180	3,849	3,136	0	0
RO		1,080	1,082	29,217	42,823	959	1,195
RS		211	244	9,034	10,548	227	206
RU		21,882	23,247	417,883	543,692	6,299	8,289
RW		8	12	777	1,442	0	0
SA		5,012	6,510	31,151	36,945	942	1,231
SC		32	25	1,451	1,288	0	0
SE		22,221	21,803	57,008	51,178	5,402	4,798
SG		8,572	9,313	56,747	54,958	1,631	1,982
SI		625	549	9,873	10,413	556	417
SK		457	525	10,868	12,965	454	459
SL		0	0	211	312	0	0
SM		42	35	0	0	553	31
SN		39	22	622	464	29	26
SO		0	0	30	0	0	0
SR		0	0	200	271	0	0
ST		0	0	48	17	0	0
SV		4	9	5,441	6,573	20	92
SX		0	0	35	115	0	0
SY		131	84	0	9,647	451	532
TD		7	2	7	24	3	8
TG		5	19	216	159	2	5
TH		1,416	1,308	36,077	40,544	4,019	4,219
TJ		5	0	0	0	0	0
TN		225	0	4,707	0	547	0
TO		0	0	5	47	4	0
TR		10,414	10,110	482,496	397,679	80,557	54,783
TT		7	6	973	1,178	12	0
UA		1,045	1,236	28,087	44,711	2,038	3,166
UG		16	0	2,069	0	56	40
US		505,682	518,791	945,376	849,951	67,327	69,076
UY		101	76	6,774	6,571	0	0
UZ		475	541	13,499	12,133	236	221
VC		2	1	107	311	0	0
VE		29	16	8,147	8,173	19	19
VN		1,057	1,119	87,482	87,038	2,365	2,168
VU		2	1	36	50	6	5
WS		0	56	386	436	9	0
YE		13	11	3,650	3,230	56	84
ZA		2,433	1,177	24,858	25,298	808	0
ZM		14	6	1,134	1,499	62	173
ZW		37	33	1,018	1,133	28	26

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,^[15] 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.^{[16] [17]} The last WIPO Indicators report to mention the name Taiwan was in 2017, noting the large number of patents by Foxconn.^{[18] [19] [20] [21]}

China has been criticized for its efforts in the UN to reduce the visibility of Taiwan,^{[22] [23]} 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.^{[24] [25] [26]}

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. Web site: About the WIPO IP Statistics Data Center . 2024-11-28 . ip-statistics . en-US.
13. Web site: World Intellectual Property Indicators 2021 . 2024-11-22 . www.wipo.int . en.
14. Web site: World Intellectual Property Indicators 2020 . 2024-11-22 . www.wipo.int . en.
15. Web site: TIPO Statistics Report: Patent and Trademark Applications in 2018 . Taiwan Intellectual Property Office . 18 March 2019 . 21 February 2021.
16. 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 .
17. 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 .
18. Web site: World Intellectual Property Indicators 2017 . WIPO . World Intellectual Property Organization.
19. Web site: World Intellectual Property Indicators 2018 . WIPO . World Intellectual Property Organization.
20. Web site: World Intellectual Property Indicators 2019 . WIPO . World Intellectual Property Organization.
21. Web site: World Intellectual Property Indicators 2020 . WIPO . World Intellectual Property Organization.
22. 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.
23. News: Lee . Kristine . It's Not Just the WHO: How China Is Moving on the Whole U.N. . 21 February 2021 . POLITICO . en.
24. News: Glosserman . Brad . China loses a skirmish in fight for global influence . 21 February 2021 . The Japan Times . 9 March 2020.
25. News: Hui . Mary . Beijing blocked Wikimedia from a UN agency because of "Taiwan-related issues" . 21 February 2021 . Quartz . en . 25 September 2020.
26. 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.