Geneva, Switzerland · 7 November 2024 — Global patenting activity reached unprecedented heights in 2023, with applications surpassing 3.5 million for the first time in history, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) annual World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report released on 7 November 2024. The figure represents a 2.7% increase over 2022 and marks the fourth consecutive year of growth, even as the global economy navigated significant headwinds.
The WIPI 2024 report, which compiles filing, registration, and renewal statistics from approximately 150 national and regional IP offices worldwide, provides the most comprehensive annual survey of intellectual property activity across patents, trademarks, industrial designs, plant varieties, and geographical indications.
Top Filing Countries and the Rise of India
China (1.64 million applications), the United States (518,364), Japan (414,413), the Republic of Korea (287,954), and Germany (133,053) maintained their positions as the top five patent filing jurisdictions. Each of the top five origins filed more patent applications in 2023 than in 2022, with the Republic of Korea recording the fastest growth at +5.7%, followed by China (+3.6%), the US (+2.5%), Japan (+2.2%), and Germany (+1.4%).
The most notable development was India's ascent. With 64,480 patent applications — a 15.7% increase driven primarily by resident filings — India moved up to sixth place globally. This marked the fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth for Indian patent applications, making it the only origin among the top 20 to report growth every year over the past decade. India also entered the top 10 across all three major IP categories (patents, trademarks, and industrial designs) for the first time, with patent and industrial design applications more than doubling between 2018 and 2023.
Technology Trends: Computing Leads, Energy Rises
Computer technology remained the most frequently featured technology in published patent applications worldwide, accounting for 12.4% of the global total. It was followed by electrical machinery (6.8%), measurement (5.9%), medical technology (5.4%), and digital communication (5.3%). Among the top 10 technology fields, computer technology was the only one to witness double-digit growth (+10.7%) between 2012 and 2022.
Energy-related patent applications — covering solar, fuel cell, wind, geothermal, and hydro energy technologies — increased from approximately 29,400 in 2007 to around 44,700 in 2022, reflecting a sustained upward trajectory in clean energy innovation.
Asia's Concentration of IP Activity
Offices located in Asia accounted for 68.7% of global patent filings, 66.7% of trademark filings, and 69% of industrial design filings in 2023. Within Asia, IP activity is highly concentrated: the offices of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea together accounted for 91.1% of Asian patent filings, 77.0% of trademark filings, and 87.2% of industrial design filings.
Africa's share of global trademark filing activity stood at 1.9% in 2023, while the continent's combined share of industrial design activity (together with Latin America, the Caribbean, and Oceania) was approximately 3% — down from 3.4% a decade earlier. These figures underscore the persistent gap in IP participation between African economies and the rest of the world, a challenge that continental strategies such as STISA-2034 aim to address.
Trademarks and Industrial Designs
Trademark filing activity totaled 15.23 million classes in 2023, reflecting a 2% decline from 2022, though the decrease was less severe than the previous year's. China remained the largest source of trademark filings with approximately 7.4 million class counts, followed by the US (849,876), the Russian Federation (543,692), India (496,293), and Germany (441,293).
Industrial design filing activity grew by 2.8% to 1.52 million designs contained in approximately 1.19 million applications. China led with 882,807 designs, followed by the US (69,076), Germany (64,986), Italy (60,486), and the Republic of Korea (60,120). Italy recorded the fastest growth among the top five at +15.7%.
Plant Varieties and Geographical Indications
Plant variety applications reached 29,070 worldwide in 2023, up 6.6% — the eighth consecutive year of growth. Chinese applicants filed 15,552 applications, representing 53.5% of the world total. The Kingdom of the Netherlands (2,924), the US (1,763), France (993), and the UK (939) rounded out the top five.
Data from 86 national and regional authorities indicated approximately 58,600 protected geographical indications (GIs) in existence in 2023. China had the most GIs in force (9,785), followed by Germany (7,586), Hungary (7,290), and the Czech Republic (6,657). Wines and spirits accounted for 48.1% of the global total, while agricultural products and foodstuffs represented 44.8%.
Implications for Global Innovation Policy
WIPO Director General Daren Tang framed the findings as evidence of resilient demand for IP protection, while cautioning that volume alone does not equate to innovation impact.
"Demand for IP rights is growing even in the face of an uncertain economic environment. In addition, this demand is increasingly indigenous. For example, the growth in patent filings has been driven by residents inside the countries themselves rather than from foreign innovators. With volume growing, the challenge still remains quality and the ability to translate IP filings into actual products and services."
For African and other developing economies, the WIPI 2024 data presents a dual picture: the global innovation system is expanding and becoming more diverse, yet the concentration of IP activity in a handful of Asian economies underscores the scale of the challenge for latecomer nations seeking to build competitive innovation ecosystems. The report reinforces the case for sustained investment in research infrastructure, IP literacy, and technology transfer mechanisms — priorities that align with the African Union's STISA-2034 framework and the AU-EU Innovation Agenda.
Sources
- WIPO, World Intellectual Property Indicators 2024, Press Release PR/2024/927, 7 November 2024 —
- WIPO, World Intellectual Property Indicators – 2024 (full report) —
- EU IP Helpdesk, World Intellectual Property Indicators 2024: Record on Global Patent Filings, 8 November 2024 —
- WIPO IP Statistics Data Portal —
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