The report, published on 6 December 2017, compiles statistics on applications for IP rights around the world.
Worldwide trade mark applications grew 16.4% in 2016, while industrial design applications grew 10.4%.
Trade mark and design trends
According to WIPO’s statement:
An estimated 7 million trademark applications covering 9.77 million classes were filed worldwide in 2016, 16.4% more applications than in 2015, marking the seventh consecutive year of growth.
“The number of trademarks being sought around the world has increased three-fold since 2001, reflecting the importance of protecting branding assets in today’s business environment,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.
The office of China had the highest volume of filing activity with a class count of around 3.7 million, followed by the U.S. (545,587), Japan (451,320), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) (369,970) and India (313,623). Among the top five offices, China (+30.8%), Japan (+30.8%) and India (+8.3%) reported solid annual growth. Other offices among the top 20 with strong growth were the Russian Federation (+14.8%), the U.K. (+19.1%) and Viet Nam (+21.1%).
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Global industrial design filing activity in 2016 grew by 10.4% to an estimated 963,100 applications containing 1.2 million designs. Design counts worldwide grew by 8.3%, driven primarily by strong growth in China.
The office of China received applications containing 650,344 designs in 2016, corresponding to 52% of the world total. It was followed by the EUIPO (104,522), the KIPO (69,120), Germany (56,188) and Turkey (46,305). Among the top 20 offices, the fastest growth in design counts occurred in the Islamic Republic of Iran (+34.8%), followed by Ukraine (+17.4%), China (+14.3%) and the U.S. (+12.1%).
A high proportion of designs in applications filed by applicants based in Switzerland (84.2%), Sweden (66.8%) and the U.S. (55.8%) were destined for protection abroad, while applicants from China, India and the Islamic Republic of Iran mostly sought protection within their respective domestic markets.
Designs related to furnishings accounted for 10.8% of all filings, followed by those related to clothing (8.6%) and to packages and containers (7.3%).
Download and read the full World IP Indicators report from WIPO’s website here.