World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) is an annual statistical report published by the

World Intellectual Property Organization The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO; (OMPI)) is one of the 15 specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). Pursuant to the 1967 Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO was created to pr ...

(WIPO). The publication provides an overview of the activity in the areas of

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

utility models A utility model is a patent-like intellectual property right to protect inventions. This type of right is available in many countries but, notably, not in the United States, United Kingdom or Canada. Although a utility model is similar to a patent ...

trademarks A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a product or service from a particular source and distinguishes it from ot ...

, industrial designs,

microorganisms A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic size, which may exist in its single-celled form or as a colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen microbial life was suspected from antiquity, with an early attestation in ...

, plant variety protection,

geographical indications A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g., a town or region). The use of a geographical indication, as an indication of the product's source, is inten ...

and the

creative economy The creative industries refers to a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. They may variously also be referred to as the cultural industries (especially in Europe) or the ...

. The WIPI draws on

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

(IP) statistics collected from the 193 member States of WIPO. It provides the latest trends for IP activity at world, geographical region, country and IP office levels. WIPO has published the report annually since 2009.

Data sources

The IP statistics data presented in the WIPI are taken from the WIPO Statistics Database and based primarily on data collected from national and regional IP offices, other competent authorities and publishers’ associations from around the world, through annual surveys consisting of multiple questionnaires. Data are also compiled by WIPO in processing international applications through the

Patent Cooperation Treaty The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) is an international patent law treaty, concluded in 1970. It provides a unified procedure for filing patent applications to protect inventions in each of its contracting states. A patent application filed und ...

(PCT), the Madrid System for trademark protection and the Hague System for industrial design protection. Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Patent family and technology data are extracted from the WIPO Statistics Database and from the PATSTAT database of the

European Patent Office The European Patent Office (EPO) is one of the two organs of the European Patent Organisation (EPOrg), the other being the Administrative Council. The EPO acts as executive body for the organisation

(EPO). Gross domestic product, income group classification and population data are from the

World Development Indicators World Development Indicators (WDI) is the World Bank’s premier compilation of international statistics on global development. Drawing from officially recognized sources and including national, regional, and global estimates, the WDI provides acce ...

database of the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

. Geographical regions are those defined by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Accessing the report and its data

The WIPI is available on WIPO website. Its underlying data can be extracted from the IP Statistics Data Center, which is WIPO’s online

statistical database A statistical database is a database used for statistical analysis purposes. It is an OLAP (online analytical processing), instead of OLTP (online transaction processing) system. Modern decision, and classical statistical databases are often clos ...

. The IP Facts and Figures report, drawn from the WIPI, serves as a quick reference guide for the most frequently used measure of IP activity. An online statistical country profile also provides a set of IP statistics at the country level More comprehensive data and analysis on the WIPO administrated Systems are available in a series of three publications: PCT Yearly Review, Madrid Yearly Review and Hague Yearly Review.

IP Statistics by IP office or by country of origin

Applications received by offices from resident and non-resident applicants are referred to as office data, whereas applications filed by applicants at their national or regional office (resident applications) or at a foreign office (applications filed abroad) are referred to as origin data. Text was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
For statistical purposes, WIPO defines the origin of an IP application to be the country or territory of residence of the first named applicant in the application. Due to the nature of the regional offices, the WIPI may use an equivalent count concept for some indicators when reporting data by country of origin. When this counting method is used, an application filed at a regional IP office is equivalent to filing an application in every member state of that office. To calculate the number of equivalent applications for the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO), the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP), the

European Union Intellectual Property Office The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) () is a decentralised agency of the EU responsible for the registration of EU-wide unitary trade marks and industrial design rights. These exist alongside the intellectual property rig ...

(EUIPO) and the GCC Patent Office, each application is multiplied by the corresponding number of member states. For example, an application filed at the EUIPO in 2022 by an applicant residing outside the EU is counted as 27 applications abroad – equal to the number of EU member countries, whereas an application filed by an EU resident results in a count of 1 resident application and 26 applications abroad. However, the

African Regional Intellectual Property Organization The African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), formerly African Regional Industrial Property Organization, is an intergovernmental organization for cooperation among African states in patent and other intellectual property matter ...

(ARIPO), the

(EPO) and the Eurasian Patent Organization (EAPO) do not register applications with an automatic region-wide applicability. Therefore, for these offices, each application is counted as one application abroad, if the applicant does not reside within a member state, or as one resident application and one application abroad, if the applicant resides within a member state.

Latest filing trends by country of origin

The patent, trademark and industrial design data presented in this table show the filing activity trend by country of origin and by year of filing. Data come from the WIPO Statistics Database, which is the source of the WIPI. The data presented in this table include those received too late to be included in the WIPI and are not based on the equivalent count concept, described above. Trademark application data refer to class counts – that is, the number of classes specified in applications. This provides the best comparison of international trademark filing activity across origins, because some jurisdictions may allow multiple classes of goods and services to be specified in a single application, whereas others require a separate application for each class. For the same reason, industrial design data refer to design counts, that is, the number of designs contained in applications.

Controversies

Taiwanese patents

Since Taiwan (ROC) is not a member of the United Nations, the number of patents filed in Taiwan is not reported. The number of patent applications filed with the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office (TIPO) in 2018 was 73,431, which would place it in 6th place worldwide for that year, or 2nd place per capita. In 2014, Bloomberg ranked Taiwan #1 in Patent Activity, using UN data. The last WIPO Indicators report to mention the name Taiwan was in 2017, noting the large number of patents by

Foxconn Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (), Trade name, doing business as Hon Hai Technology Group () in Taiwan, Foxconn Technology Group () in China, and Foxconn () internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational corporation, multinational electron ...

. China has been criticized for its efforts in the UN to reduce the visibility of Taiwan, including via WIPO; in 2020 Beijing reportedly retaliated to the failed election of a Chinese director-general of the organization by preventing the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. (WMF) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, and registered there as foundation (United States law), a charitable foundation. It is the host of Wikipedia, th ...

from gaining observer status at the WIPO, on the grounds that Wikimedia has a Taiwan subsidiary.

References

External links

World Intellectual Property Organization

WIPO IP Statistics Data Center
{{Population country lists Rankings

Intellectual Property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

World Intellectual Property Organization