Geneva, Switzerland · 21 November 2022 — The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published its annual World Intellectual Property Indicators 2022 report, revealing that innovators worldwide filed 3.4 million patent applications in 2021 — a 3.6% increase over 2020 and a new all-time high surpassing the pre-pandemic peak of 3.3 million reached in 2018.
The report, based on data from 2021 collected from national and regional IP offices worldwide, demonstrated the resilience of the global innovation ecosystem despite the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The growth was driven primarily by a surge in filings from China, supported by robust contributions from the Republic of Korea and the European Patent Office.
Asia's Dominant and Growing Role
The most striking finding was the continued geographic shift in innovation activity toward Asia. Offices located in Asia accounted for 67.6% of all patent applications worldwide in 2021, up from 54.6% in 2011. Over the same decade, Europe's share declined to 10.5% and North America's to 18.5%.
Asia's dominance extended across all categories of intellectual property:
| IP Right | Asia's Share (2021) |
|---|---|
| Patents | 67.6% |
| Trademarks | 69.7% |
| Industrial Designs | 69.3% |
| Utility Models | 98.4% |
Top Filing Offices
The top five patent offices by application volume in 2021 were:
- China (CNIPA): 1,585,663 applications (+5.9%)
- United States (USPTO): 591,473 applications (-1.0%)
- Japan (JPO): 289,200 applications (+0.3%)
- Republic of Korea (KIPO): 237,998 applications (+3.9%)
- European Patent Office (EPO): 188,778 applications (+4.7%)
The Republic of Korea contributed an additional 11,239 applications to global growth, while the European Patent Office added 8,432 — making them the second and third largest growth drivers after China.
Beyond Patents: Trademarks and Designs
The WIPO report also tracked trademark and industrial design activity, both of which showed strong recovery:
- Trademarks: Global trademark filing activity reached approximately 18.2 million class counts in 2021, a 5.5% increase. China's trademark office again led with the highest filing activity.
- Industrial Designs: Approximately 1.5 million industrial design applications were filed worldwide, containing 1.9 million designs — a 6.5% increase in designs.
Implications for Developing Economies
While the report focused on aggregate global trends, the findings carry significant implications for developing countries, particularly in Africa, where patent filing volumes remain a fraction of those in leading offices. The concentration of IP activity in a handful of countries underscores the persistent innovation gap that initiatives like the AU-EU Innovation Agenda and UNESCO's open science programmes seek to address.
For African research institutions and technology transfer offices, the WIPO data highlights both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is that the global patent landscape is increasingly dominated by filers from a small number of jurisdictions, potentially limiting the relevance of patented technologies to local contexts. The opportunity lies in the growing recognition — reflected in WIPO's own technical assistance programmes — that building domestic IP capacity is essential for translating research into economic value.
The report also noted that the number of active patents in force worldwide reached approximately 16.5 million in 2021, a 7.2% increase, with the largest increases observed in China and the United States. This growing patent stock represents an expanding body of technical knowledge that, through patent disclosure requirements, is publicly available — a resource that open science advocates argue should be more systematically leveraged by researchers in developing countries.
A Resilient Innovation Ecosystem
WIPO Director General Daren Tang noted that the record filing numbers demonstrated the resilience of the global innovation ecosystem. Even as the pandemic disrupted economies and supply chains, innovators and enterprises continued to invest in protecting their intellectual property — a leading indicator of R&D spending and future economic competitiveness.
The 2022 edition of the report was accompanied by WIPO's IP Statistics Data Center, which provides free access to detailed historical data on IP filings across countries and technology fields, enabling researchers and policymakers to conduct their own analyses of innovation trends.
Sources
- WIPO, "Worldwide IP Filings Reached New All-Time Highs in 2021, Asia Drives Growth," 21 November 2022 —
- WIPO, World Intellectual Property Indicators 2022 —
- WIPO IP Facts and Figures 2022 —
- WIPO Key Findings 2022 —
- Image: WIPO report cover, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA)
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.
