The results of the World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) survey are presented in a report covering a range of IP categories, including patents, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks, among other types of intellectual property rights.

As a first relevant fact, the report shows that this is the fourth consecutive year of growth.

Following a long-term trend, offices located in Asia accounted for 68.7%, 66.7% and 69% of global patent, trademark and industrial design filing activity in 2023, respectively.

In terms of the number of patent applications, an all-time high was reached worldwide in 2023. The ranking is led by China (1.64 million), the US (518,364), Japan (414,413), the Republic of Korea (287,954) and Germany (133,053). India (64,480) moved up to sixth place with an increase of 15.7%, mainly due to a rise in applications from residents, driven by its rapidly expanding economy. The top 10 is completed by France, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Italy. Spain was ranked 24th[1].

Although the gender gap among PCT inventors vary considerably from country to country, it is highlighted in this report that China, Spain and Turkey show the highest proportion of female inventors in 2023.

Utility model applications worldwide increased by 3.9% to reach 3.1 million applications in 2023. Among top 10 country of origin, Russian Federation (+14.6%), Spain (+10.3%), Thailand (+13.7%) and Ukraine (+46.2%) recorded double-digit growth in 2023 compared to 2022.

Global industrial design filing activity also grew in 2023, rising by 2.8% to 1.52 million designs. The offices which saw the strongest growth were Spain (+33%), Indonesia (+30.1%), Italy (+25.3%) and India (+24.9%). Textiles and accessories made up a substantial share of the total at the offices of Spain (55.7%),

Trademark filing activity totaled 15.23 million classes, reflecting a decrease of 2% by 2022, although the decrease was much less severe than in the previous year. The number of active trademark registrations in 2023 increased by 6.4%, despite a year-on-year decline in trademark applications in several offices. This suggests that the increase in active registrations in 2023 was due, in part, to examination decisions on trademark applications filed prior to that year.

Once again, the office of China had by far the highest number of trademark registrations in force in 2023, with a total of 46.1 million. It was followed by the offices of India, US, UK and Brazil. The EUIPO and the offices of France, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea and Türkiye reported figures ranging from between 1.3 to 2.2 million active trademark registrations. The offices of Argentina (983,314) and Germany (999,107) reported comparable stocks of trademark registrations in force, while Australia (854,081), the Russian Federation (861,148) and Spain (847,676) recorded similar counts.

These types of reports allow us to know not only country profiles in terms of innovation, but also provide valuable information on trends, competitors and markets, which is essential when making strategic decisions in your entrepreneurial business.

If you are an SME and you are interested in protecting your innovations, you want to obtain information on intellectual property (IP), appropriate protection routes for your technological developments, assess the feasibility of protecting your trademarks, learn more about your competitors, markets or identify potential strategic partners, the FEUGA’s iHUB can provide you with IP training and advice tailored to your interests and needs, including workshops on IP, protection strategies and their importance in the impact of a business model, as well as specialized services of analysis of the state of the art in patents, searches on registered trademarks, feasibility assessment, among others!

These services may obtain 100% financing through the PADIH PROGRAMME of the DIHGIGAL – Digital Innovation Hub Industrial de Galicia, which seeks to promote the digitalization of industrial companies in Galicia. If you are interested, more info here!

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