Worldwide Patent Filings on the Rise - EPO

Statistics published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) this week show that the number of patent applications filed worldwide has grown significantly in recent years, a press release by the European Patent Office (EPO) stated.
According to the WIPO Patent Report 2007, the number of worldwide patent filings increased by an average of 4.7 % per year between 1995 and 2005, reaching a total of more than 1.6 million patent applications in 2005.
Together major patent offices - China, Japan, the United States, Korea and the EPO - account for 77 % of all applications and 74 % of granted patents.
The report notes an increasing internationalization of the patent system, with the number of filings by non-residents increasing 7.6 % between 2004 and 2005.
Inventions in the field of electricity and electronics accounted for 35 % of patent applications between 2000 and 2005, with applications concentrated in Japan, the US, Korea, Europe and China.