UN says international patent applications fall for first time in 14 years

In 2023, a total of 272,600 international patents were applied for. (representative)

Geneva:

International patent applications fell last year for the first time in 14 years due to rising interest rates and economic uncertainty, with India one of the few countries bucking the trend, the United Nations said on Thursday.

The United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) stated in its annual overview that a total of 272,600 international patent applications were filed in 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 1.8%.

“We believe this reflects the current unfavorable environment for innovation and entrepreneurial activity,” WIPO chief economist Carsten Fink told reporters in Geneva.

Economic uncertainty, especially last year’s rise in interest rates, is seen as the main reason for the decline.

However, Fink stressed that this decline should be viewed as “a cyclical phenomenon.”

“We believe that once the external environment improves, the number of IP applications will pick up again.”

WIPO Director General Darren Tang agreed, noting that a possible fall in inflation could provide more business confidence and investment in innovation, “laying the groundwork for a resurgence in international IP filings later this year.”

He said in a statement: “Despite these short-term declines, long-term trends point to steady growth in the use of intellectual property in an increasingly globalized, digital economy, and as economies around the world develop. spread.”

India is growing rapidly

WIPO’s complex international patent registration system spans multiple categories, including the global trademark and design filing system.

In the main category of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), China continues to top the list with 69,610 applications, a 0.6% decrease from 2022.

WIPO said this marked China’s first year-on-year decline since 2002.

Meanwhile, the United States remained in second place in 2023, with 55,678 applications, a year-on-year decrease of 5.3%.

Following China and the United States are Japan, South Korea and Germany, with South Korea being the only country among the top five that saw a slight increase in patent applications last year, with applications increasing by 1.2% to 22,288.

India had the fastest growth, with international patent applications soaring 44.6% to 3,791.

WIPO said this follows a 25.9% increase a year ago.

And the upward trend is likely to continue.

Fink said that as a country with a population of nearly 1.5 billion, India “certainly still has huge growth opportunities.”

Turkey grew by 8.5%, the Netherlands by 5.8% and France by 2%.

The WIPO report shows that Asia accounted for 55.7% of all applications last year, up from just over 40% a decade ago.

As for companies, Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. topped the list again last year with 6,494 international patent applications.

Followed by Samsung Electronics of South Korea, Qualcomm of the United States, Mitsubishi Electric of Japan and BOE Technology of China.

Computer technology has the largest share of published PCT applications, accounting for 10.2% of all applications, followed by digital communications and electrical machinery.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)