Global intellectual property filings- of patents, trademarks, and designs-reached record levels in 2021 driven largely by increases from Asian countries of India, China, and South Korea according to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
More About The Development:
Strong growth in local patent filings in India (+5.5 per cent), China (+5.5 per cent) and the Republic of Korea (+2.5 per cent) drove the global growth in patent applications in 2021, propelling the share of Asian filings to cross the two-thirds threshold, the report said.
Local patenting activity in the U.S. (-1.2 per cent), Japan (-1.7 per cent) and Germany (-3.9 per cent) declined in 2021.
About The Report:
The WIPO’s World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report showed that innovators around the world filed 3.4 million patent applications in 2021, up 3.6 per cent from the previous year with offices in Asia receiving 67.6 per cent of all applications worldwide.
What Has Been Said:
According to WIPO, despite the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, this bucked previous economic downturn trends.
The UN agency said that despite the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, this bucked previous economic downturn trends.
“The latest WIPI data show continued and sustained growth in IP filings, driven largely by increases from Asia, with other regions also trending mostly upward,” said WIPO Director General Daren Tang. “IP filing strength during the pandemic showed that people across the world continued to innovate and create despite the economic and social disruptions caused by the pandemic,” he added.
“However, the challenges facing us right now such as climate change and the achievement of the UN SDGs means that we have to continue supporting innovators and creators to use the IP system to bring their ideas to reality, and create the impact that will change our lives for the better,” he added.
