World Bulletin / News Desk

Global patent filings in 2012 increased at its strongest rate in nearly two decaes as industrial-design registration notched its best-ever rate of growth.

The 2013 edition of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) report was presented in the UN Office at Geneva on Monday.

According the report, intellectual property (IP) filings grew by 9.2 percent (2.5 million applications filled) in 2012 following a 3.9 percent decrease in 2009, 7.6 percent in 2010 and 8.1 percent in 2011.

In 2012, untilities model (UM) filings increased by 23.4 percent, industrial design fillings by 17 percent and trademark fillings by 6 percent.

The estimated 2.35 million patent filings worldwide in 2012 consisted of 1.51 million filed by residents and 830 thousand by non-residents.

China: The main driver of global IP growth

The 2013 edition of the WIPO Indicators also show that for the first time, China tops the ranking for both the sources (filed by China) and the destination (filed by China) for the four types of IP.

The report also indicated that continued rapid growth in China is the main driver of global IP growth.

Among the top 20 IP offices, Peoples Republic of China saw the fastest growth in fillings in 2012, followed by the offices of New Zealand (14%), Mexico (9%) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (7%).

Turkey tops the ranking for trademarks

The total number of classes specified in trademark applications filed worldwide grew by 5 percent in 2012 as 6.58 million classes were specified in applications.

Among the top 20 IP offices saw growth in class, namely Turkey (24.1%) and China (16%), reported the fastest growth.

Industrial Design

In 2012, aplication containing an estimated 1.22 million designs were filled worldwide. The IP Office of the Russian Federation with 29.5 percent growth recorded the fastest growth in design counts in 2012 followed by the Peoples Republic of China (26.1%) and Turkey (12.4%).

Plant Varieties

The total number of plant variety applcations reached a new record in 2012 (14,319) by the growth rate of 1.8 percent in 2012 , which was modest compared to 2011 (7.5%).

In 2012, the largest number of plant variety application originated in the Netherlands (2,560) and followed by the US (1,829) and China (1,485).