World Intellectual Property Indicators 2021 – Key Findings

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published a report earlier this week on global intellectual property (IP) activity in 2020. There are some very interesting findings in this report, that provide an insight on global economic activity and trends, as summarized below.

Marked Increase in Global IP Filing

In 2020 there was a marked increase in global filing of all forms of IP. The global filing included 3.3 million patent applications (1.6% increase over 2019), 3 million utility models (28% increase over 2019), 17.2 million trademark applications (14% increase over 2019) and 1.4 million industrial designs (2% increase over 2019). This is somewhat surprising seeing that 2020 experienced the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with an initial, dramatic decline in economic activity.