China drives growth in worldwide patent filings in 2015

According to a recently published report by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the overall number of patent applications filed worldwide grew by 7.8% in 2015. 

A significant 84% of this growth was a direct result of an 18.7% increase in patent filings in China between 2014 and 2015.  This growth has led to the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) becoming the first office to receive a million applications in a single year, with a total of 1,101,864 applications being filed in 2015.  This is in stark contrast to the figures for China in 2005 when a total of 173,327 patent applications were filed.  Of the total number of applications filed in China in 2015, the vast majority (approximately 88%) were filed by applicants who were resident in China, whilst only 4% of the patent applications originating from Chinese applicants were filed outside of China.

The European Patent Office (EPO) saw a more modest rate of growth in 2015, with the number of patent applications filed increasing by 4.8%.  Approximately 48% of the applications filed at the EPO in 2015 were by applicants resident in the contracting states to the European Patent Convention, with the majority of applications coming from applicants based outside of the region. The number of applications filed by Chinese applicants at the EPO grew by 22.6%, from 4,657 to 5,711.