Patent applications: India ranks eighth in the list of nations

The Dollar Business Bureau With almost 980,000 trademarks in 2013, India only ranks behind China with 7.2 million (mn), the US (1.8 million) and Japan (1.7 million), says the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO), IP Facts and Figures, 2014 report. The report provides an overview of Intellectual Property (IP) activity using the latest available year of complete statistics. The figures presented are based on a selection of those reported in WIPO’s more compressive World Intellectual Property Indicators, 2014. The report says, of the estimated 9.45 million patents in force, 26% were in the United States, followed by 19% in Japan and for the first time, 2013 saw more than a million patents in force in China. Almost three million industrial design registrations were in force, of which 1.2 mn were in China alone. As regards Patents, India has done well to be in the eight position in the list of nations with the largest number of patent applications received by any single IP office. China accounted for the largest number of patents – a position it has held since 2011. Among the top 10 IP offices, China’s IP office (+26.4%) saw the fastest annual growth in filings received, followed by those of the Republic of Korea (+8.3%) and the US (+5.3%). A member of the BRICS fraternity, Brazil occupied the 10th slot in the top 10 list. Stating that the designs in applications filed at several of top offices are concentrated in few sectors, the report says that the textiles and accessories sector is among the top three that attracted the highest volumes of industrial design filing activity. Applications related to tools and machines accounted for higher shares of the totals filed at the offices of India as compared to those filed in Australia, Germany and Turkey. In Germany and Turkey, applications for design protection were concentrated among the advertising, furniture and household goods, textiles and accessories sectors. The combined shares of these three sectors accounted for over half of all design filing activity in both countries. The report covers four types of industrial property—patents, utility models, trademarks and industrial designs—while serving as a quick reference guide. To this end, it primarily focuses on application data, which is the most often used measure of IP activity. Trademark application data refers to class counts—the number of classes specified in applications—in order to better compare international trademark filing activity across offices. Similarly, industrial design data refer to design counts—the number of designs contained in applications. The charts, graphs and tables enable a comparison of IP activity across offices and through the use of the WIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and the Madrid and Hague Systems in 2013.    

This article was published on March 20, 2015.