World Intellectual Property Indicators Report: Global Record Number of Patent Applications Filed in 2022

World Intellectual Property Indicators report analyses intellectual property (IP) activity around the globe. Drawing on 2022 filing, registration and in force statistics from national and regional IP offices, it covers patents, utility models, trademarks, industrial designs, microorganisms, plant variety protection and geographical indications.

The report shows that there was a record number of patent applications filed worldwide in 2022. Even though the global filings for trademarks and designs decreased, innovators from around the world submitted 3.46 million patent applications in 2022, marking a third consecutive year of growth.

China, the US, Japan, Republic of Korea, the European Patent Office (EPO) were the top five offices and accounted for 84.9% of the world total in 2022. Among top five offices, China registered strong growth in filings for a third successive year, while the EPO recorded a second straight year of growth.

An estimated 11.8 million trademark applications covering 15.5 million classes were filed worldwide in 2022. However, there was a notable decrease in the number of classes specified in these applications, dropping by 14.5%. In 2022, 1.1 million industrial design applications were filed globally. These applications contained about 1.5 million designs, corresponding to a decrease of 2.1% on 2021. Around 27,260 plant variety applications were filed worldwide in 2022, up +8.2% on 2021 and 58,400 protected geographical indications (GIs) in existence in 2022 according to the data from the 91 national and regional authorities.