WIPO IP filings statistics for 2024: patents, designs hit new records, trade marks flat

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WIPO’s latest World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report shows record-setting levels of applications for patents and designs in 2024, while demand for trade marks remained statis.

Note: * indicates trade mark classes specified and designs contained in applications to allow for cross-border comparison, as some countries require individual filings for each class or design, while others allow for multiple classes/designs in a single filing.

Source: WIPO World Intellectual Property Indicators

The WIPI report provides an annual worldwide overview of filing activity in the areas of patents, trade marks, designs and other IP rights. It draws on statistics from around 150 national and regional IP offices.

According to the report, patenting activity grew 4.9% in 2024, the fifth successive year of growth. Global design filings rose 2.2%. Worldwide trademark applications effectively remained the same year on year, but this follows two years or decline.

The figures showed the continued importance of IP rights for business and economic growth, said WIPO Director General Daren Tang:

“In today’s competitive, global economy, innovation is a key driver of growth with IP at the center of many business strategies - whether protecting and promoting breakthrough technologies, trusted brands or eye-catching designs. The continued growth in IP filings also reflects strong confidence in the IP system and the efforts of governments, with WIPO’s support, to incentivize and strengthen innovation. Sustaining this trust requires ongoing global cooperation to ensure a robust and effective IP framework.”

Patents

Global patenting activity showed a record 3.7 million applications filed in 2024, 4.9% up on 2023. The main drivers of global growth in 2024 were big rises in patent filings by residents of China, India, the Republic of Korea and Japan.

China (1.8 million), the US (501,831), Japan (419,132), the Republic of Korea (295,722), and Germany (133,485) led global patent filings.

The latest report also includes analysis of the technology sectors which patents related to. In 2023 – the latest year for which complete figures are available owing to the delay between application for a patent and its publication – computer technology was the most frequently featured technology worldwide, accounting for 13.2% of the total.

It was followed by electrical machinery (7.2%), measurement (6.2%), digital communication (5.8%) and medical technology (4.9%). Among the top 10 fields of technology, computer technology (+10.3%) is the only field to have witnessed double-digit growth between 2013 and 2023. Filings related to measurement (+7.2%) and digital communication (+6.6%) also saw robust growth over the same period.

Trade marks

Global trade mark applications showed signs of recovery following a two-year slowdown. Trade mark filings totalled 15.2 million classes (trade marks can be applied for in multiple business classes), a 0.1% decline from 2023 but still an improvement on the steep falls seen in the previous two years.

The highest volume of filing activity came from applicants based in China; combining domestic and international applications results in a class count of around 7.3 million. US applicants were next (836,457), then those based in the Russian Federation (559,436), followed by applicants from India (532,900) and Brazil (436,291).

In 2024, the research and technology sector attracted the largest filing volumes by applicants seeking trademark protection abroad, constituting 19.3% of global reported non-resident trademark filing. It was followed by the health (14.1%), clothing and accessories (12.2%) and leisure and education (10.4%) sectors.

Designs

Global design filing activity grew by 2.2% to 1.6 million designs in 2024, with seven of the top 20 countries seeing double digit growth. Applicants residing in China were the most active in the world in terms of design count in 2024, with 906,849 applications filed. They were followed by applicants from Germany (70,212), the US (66,855), Italy (63,668) and the Republic of Korea (60,109). Together, these top five countries accounted for almost three-quarters (74.9%) of the global activity in 2024.

In 2024, the sectors accounting for the largest shares of the world total trade mark filings were furniture and household goods (16.7%), textiles and accessories (16.7%), tools and machines (11.3%), ICT and audiovisual (9.2%) and electricity and lighting (8.9%). Together, these five sectors accounted for 62.8% of all classes recorded globally.