WIPO Latest News: The number of PCT applications Continue to Grow in 2020, China Still is No. 1

2021/03/08

 

International patent applications filed via WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which is one of the widely used metrics for measuring innovative activity, grew by four percent in 2020 to reach 275,900 applications, the highest number ever, despite an estimated drop in the global gross domestic product (GDP) of 3.5 percent.
 
China, with 68,720 applications in 2020, or a 16.1 percent year-on-year growth, remains the largest user of WIPO's PCT System, followed by the United States with 59,230 applications, up three percent, Japan with 50,520 applications, South Korea with 20,060 applications, and Germany with 18,643 applications.