China surpasses US in number of patent applications for second consecutive year

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China ranked first in the number of international patent applications in 2020.

Since 1978, the United States has consistently been the first, but in 2019, China overtook the United States for the first time, filing about 1,000 more applications.

China surpasses US in number of patent applications for second consecutive year

In 2020, Chinese applicants filed 68,720 patent applications, an increase of 16% over 2019. At the same time, for the fourth year in a row, the Chinese company Huawei Technologies, the world’s leading manufacturer of telecommunications equipment, filed the most applications in the world.

The United States, the second-largest country, increased its number of applications by 3% compared to 2019, to 59,230.

Japan is in third place. Japanese applicants submitted 50,520 applications, down 4% from 2019.

The number of patent applications worldwide rose 4% to a record high of 275,900. The largest number of applications are related to computer technology and digital communications.

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