China's growth in IP filings is well known - it runs in
millions each year now. Within this there is a well known problem
of junk patents (designs and utility models which are not novel)
and bad faith trademark squatters, as well as now, high volume
hoarders - which made trademark filing volumes swell in recent
years. But even despite that the numbers in China are
staggering.
As the table from WIPO data shows though, China continues to
accelerate away from ASEAN. Over the last 5 years its IP filings
doubled, while ASEAN's increased 60% over the same period. The
low base in ASEAN perhaps ought to have allowed it to increase
faster. As set out above, some of China's filings (possibly up
to half are poor quality), but even then, the volumes are still far
ahead of the SE Asia region.
