InsightaaS: I’ve met a few people who care intensely about IP issues (heck, we even have a client like that!). However, even though it’s clear that IP trends are important, most of us don’t follow IP-related news that closely – which makes any clear and concise source of insight valuable as a one-stop means of getting caught up on the IP world.
Today’s featured post serves this purpose well. Posted by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), even the title – “Global Intellectual Property Filings Up in 2013, China Drives Patent Application Growth” – provides some interesting insight on what’s new in IP. The text is similarly instructive and to-the-point. One sentence states that “across the world, IP filing activity saw growth of 9% for patents, 6.4% for trademarks, 2.5% for industrial designs, and 6.3% for plant varieties.” Another paragraph notes that “The top three patent offices in 2013 were China, with 825,136 filings, followed by the US (571,612) and Japan (328,436). The gap between China and the other offices has widened considerably since 2011, when China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) became the world’s top office in terms of patent filings received,” which is interesting in light of China’s historical position as a nation that was not particularly respectful of foreign firms’ IP.
Reading the piece, we also see where innovation is hottest – “Computer technology (7.6% of total) saw the most published applications worldwide, followed by electrical machinery (7.2%), measurement (4.7%), digital communication (4.5%) and medical technology (4.3%)” – and where it is not – “Japan saw a 4.2% decline [in patent filings], while offices in Europe such as Italy (-1.1%), Spain (-6.6%), the UK (-1.3%) and the EPO [European Patent Office] (-0.4%) received fewer applications in 2013 than in 2012.
Trends in IP shape knowledge-based industries. We may not all follow them closely, but a checkup like this one provides a useful update on an important issue!
Global patent filings extended a run of strong annual increases in 2013, underpinned by double-digit growth in China where about a third of the world’s 2.6 million patent applications were filed, followed by the United States of America (US) and Japan as the next-largest recipients.
Trademark applications rose to nearly 5 million, also driven by strong demand in China.
Amid an uneven pace of global economic recovery, filings also increased for industrial designs and utility models in 2013 for the fourth consecutive year, according to the 2014 edition of the World Intellectual Property Indicators, a benchmark report that gathers data on intellectual property rights from more than 100 countries.
Across the world, IP filing activity saw growth of 9% for patents, 6.4% for trademarks, 2.5% for industrial designs, and 6.3% for plant varieties.
Reflecting growth rates of gross domestic product in many regions, IP filing increases are robust in China and the US, while declining in Europe and Japan.
“Global intellectual property filing trends mirror the broader economic picture,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. “The diverging performance of the world economy appears to be leaving its mark on the global innovation landscape”…
