The pandemic did not knock down the inventors – Newspaper Kommersant No. 222 (7423) of 11/30/2022

The number of applications for registration of patents, trademarks and industrial designs in the world at the end of 2021 reached a new record level, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO, a UN specialized agency) said. The number of patent applications compared to 2020 increased by 3.6% (up to 3.4 million), trademark applications – by 5.5% (up to 18.1 million), industrial designs – by 9.2% ( up to 1.5 million). Such growth, according to the organization, speaks of the resilience of the global innovation ecosystem during a pandemic.

China’s Intellectual Property (IP) Office received almost half of the world’s patent applications last year, at 1.59 million (up 5.5%). This is followed by the United States (592 thousand applications, minus 1.2%) and Japan (289 thousand, minus 1.7%). At the end of 2021, Russia closed the top 10 countries with the highest patent activity (31 thousand applications, minus 11.5%). Overall, two-thirds of the global number of patent applications (67.6%) were in Asia.

In terms of trademark registration volume, this region also leads by a wide margin – 69.7% of all applications. The main area in which applicants have applied for protection of their marks abroad is research and technology (20% of the global number of registered applications). Asia accounted for 69.3% of all industrial design applications. At the same time, the patent office of China received 53.2% of their global number. In the world as a whole, the largest share of applications (17.8%) concerned furniture and household items.

According to WIPO Director General Daren Tang, the steady rise in IP filings showed that innovation and creativity around the world continued despite economic and social upheaval.

It should be noted that WIPO data on applications for inventions in the Russian Federation correspond to the figures presented by Rospatent at the beginning of the year (see Kommersant of January 13). The Russian office reported that, in addition to the 11.5% decrease in the number of patent applications noted by WIPO, in 2021 the number of trademark applications in the Russian Federation increased by 14%. The decrease in the number of applications for inventions was explained by a sharp drop in the patent activity of individuals.

Venera Petrova