10% Increase in Patent Activity in 2016

More than 2.6 million patent applications were filed at the world’s five largest intellectual property offices in 2016, an increase of 10.4% over the previous year. These numbers were presented by the recent IP5 Statistics Report published jointly by the EPO, the Japan Patent Office, the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office, collectively known as the IP5 offices. Moreover, together the IP5 offices granted 1.1 million patents in 2016 (9.6% more than in 2015).

To cope with increasing demand, the EPO has put in place a series of quality and efficiency measures, which in 2016 led to an 8.5% rise in products (completed searches, substantive examinations and oppositions), and 40% more patents granted.

Click HERE for further information and the report.