The number of international patent applications fell last year for the first time in 14 years due to higher interest rates and economic uncertainty, according to the UN.
A total of 272,600 international patents were filed in 2023, down 1.8% from the previous year, the UN World Intellectual Property Organization said in its annual report.
“We believe this reflects the current unfavorable environment for innovation and entrepreneurship,” WIPO Chief Economist Carsten Fink said at a press briefing in Geneva. However, in his opinion, this decline should be considered as a “cyclical” phenomenon related to the economic situation. “We believe that intellectual property filings will resume as soon as the external environment improves,” he added. WIPO Director General Daren Tang expects international intellectual property filings to “resume later this year.” “Despite this short-term decline, long-term trends show that the use of intellectual property is steadily increasing,” driven by increased globalization and digitalization, as well as economic development in many countries.
L’Oréal leads in France
For patents filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), China remained at the top of the rankings with 69,610 applications, down 0.6% from 2022, a first for the country since 2002. 5.3%, but remains in second place with 55,678 deposits. They are followed by Japan, South Korea and Germany respectively.
South Korea is the only country in the Big Five to file more patents than in 2022 (+1.2% to 22,288). Note that India has seen impressive deposit growth (+44.6%), but its total is still modest (3,791).
Among the few other countries to show growth were Turkey with an increase of 8.5% and the Netherlands (+5.8%). In France, the number of patent applications increased by 2%. And it is the L’Oréal group that has been in pole position for the second year with 199 requests.
Internationally, Chinese telecoms giant Huawei “remains by far the top applicant,” WIPO said, with 6,494 applications, followed by Korea’s Samsung Electronics (3,924 applications), America’s Qualcomm (3,410 applications) and Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric. By sector, the largest share of requests was for IT technologies – 10.2% of the total.
Source: Le Parisien
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