Geneva, Switzerland · 3 December 2018 — The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released its annual World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report, documenting that innovators worldwide filed approximately 3.17 million patent applications in 2017, a 5.8% increase over the previous year and the eighth consecutive year of growth in global patent filing activity. The report, which provides the most comprehensive global overview of intellectual property trends, revealed a landscape increasingly dominated by Asia, with China's intellectual property office receiving more patent applications than the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the European Patent Office combined.
Key Findings of the 2018 Report
The WIPI 2018 edition, published in December 2018 and covering 2017 filing data, presented several striking findings about the state of global innovation as measured by intellectual property activity.
The top five intellectual property offices — China, the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the European Patent Office — collectively accounted for 84.5% of all patent applications filed worldwide. This concentration underscored the geographic asymmetry of formal innovation activity, with the remaining 15.5% distributed across more than 150 other jurisdictions.
| IP Office | Patent Applications (2017) | Share of Global Total |
|---|---|---|
| China (CNIPA) | 1,380,000 | 43.4% |
| United States (USPTO) | 606,956 | 19.1% |
| Japan (JPO) | 318,479 | 10.0% |
| Republic of Korea (KIPO) | 229,506 | 7.2% |
| European Patent Office (EPO) | 166,585 | 5.2% |
Methodological Change and Growth Recalculation
A notable feature of the 2018 report was a methodological adjustment by China's IP office. Starting in 2017, China began counting only patent applications for which the necessary filing fees had been received, providing a more accurate representation of genuine filing activity. Using this revised methodology retroactively, China reported a 14.2% growth rate in 2017, which significantly influenced the global total. The worldwide growth rate of 5.8% was calculated based on this revised reporting.
Beyond Patents: Trademarks, Designs, and the Creative Economy
The WIPI 2018 report extended its analysis beyond patents to cover utility models, trademarks, industrial designs, microorganisms, and plant variety protection. For the first time, the edition also included an analysis of the creative economy, broadening the report's scope beyond traditional industrial intellectual property.
- Trademarks: An estimated 9.11 million trademark applications were filed worldwide in 2017, representing a 26.8% increase over 2016 — the fastest growth rate across all IP rights categories.
- Industrial Designs: Approximately 1.24 million industrial design applications were filed globally, with China accounting for over half of the world total.
- Plant Varieties: Applications for plant variety protection reached approximately 18,890, reflecting growing innovation in agricultural biotechnology.
The report also featured a special section exploring methods to statistically capture patent litigation activity, providing selected statistics for the United Kingdom and the United States — an area that had previously lacked systematic international comparison.
Implications for Developing Economies
The WIPI data highlighted the persistent gap between high-income and developing economies in formal intellectual property activity. While Asia's share of global patent filings continued to rise, driven primarily by China, many regions — including most of Africa — remained marginal participants in the international patent system.
WIPO Director General's Assessment
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry noted at the report's launch that the data demonstrated a sustained increase in innovation activity worldwide, particularly in Asia. He emphasised that intellectual property rights were becoming increasingly central to economic competitiveness and that the geographic shift in filing activity reflected deeper changes in the global distribution of research and development investment.
The Role of IP in Technology Transfer
For research institutions and innovation agencies, the WIPI report served as a benchmark for assessing national performance in the intellectual property dimension of innovation ecosystems. Technology transfer offices (TTOs) at universities worldwide rely on patent protection to commercialise research outputs, and the WIPI data provided context for evaluating the effectiveness of national IP policies and institutional technology transfer strategies.
In South Africa, for example, the National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO) continued to work under the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act to ensure that IP from publicly funded research was identified, protected, and utilised. By 2018, approximately 92% of South African universities had established dedicated Technology Transfer Offices, though the volume of patent filings from the continent remained a fraction of global totals.
Sources:
- WIPO, "World Intellectual Property Indicators 2018," December 2018, wipo.int
- WIPO Press Release, "Record Number of Patent Applications but China Drives Growth," December 2018
- WIPO IP Statistics Data Center, wipo.int
- USPTO Performance and Accountability Report 2017
FIRAT Editorial Board
Institutional Research Desk · Foresight Institute of Research and Translation
The collective editorial and research translation board of FIRAT, synthesising peer-reviewed evidence, policy briefs, and division milestones across our seven foundational research pillars.
