The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the results of the international registration of patents, trademarks and industrial designs in 2020 on March 2, showing that China has submitted 68,720 international patent applications through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), ranking first in the world.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, despite the huge human and economic losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of international patent applications filed through the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2020 continues to grow. The application volume of the two major users, China and the United States, both achieved annual growth.

The number of international patent applications filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty is one of the indicators widely used in measuring innovation activities. Although global GDP is expected to decrease by 3.5%, the number of international patent applications in 2020 has increased by 4% to 275,900 applications, which is the highest number ever.

Among them, with 68,720 applications, a year-on-year increase of 16.1%, China still remains the largest user of the WIPO Patent Cooperation Treaty system, the United States (59,230 applications, +3%), and Japan (50,520 applications, -4.1 %), South Korea (20060 applications, +5.2%) and Germany (18643 applications, -3.7%) ranked second to fifth.

In terms of enterprises, China's Huawei became the largest applicant in the international patent system with 5,464 published international patent applications for the fourth consecutive year in 2020. Samsung of South Korea, Mitsubishi of Japan, LG of South Korea and Qualcomm of the United States ranked second to fifth.

Among educational institutions, the University of California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Shenzhen University, Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University reported the top five international patent applications. Among the top ten universities, five are from China, four are from the United States, and one from Japan.

In addition, in terms of international trademark applications, in 2020, the number of international trademark applications filed under the Madrid System of the World Intellectual Property Organization, China ranked third with 7,075, and the top two were the United States (1,0005) and Germany (7334).

It is worth mentioning that since the World Intellectual Property "Patent Cooperation Treaty" came into operation in 1978, the United States has continued to top the list. In 2019, China surpassed the United States for the first time and became the world's largest source of patent applications.

It is believed that with the development of domestic economy and technology, enterprises increase technology research and development funds and the introduction of high-end talents,

the number of patent applications in China will still lead the world and realize the triple crown in 2021.