China has replaced Germany as the third biggest country in patent filing, according to the annual report released Thursday by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
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Statistics showed that the number of annual international patent applications in 2013 had reached a record high of 205,300, more than five percent higher than that in 2012.
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"International patent, in general, is in a growth mood, which considerably in excess of either national or world GDP growth rate," said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.
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Specifically, the United States witnessed the most applications which is more than 57,000 in 2013, with Japan, China and Germany in the following places.
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This is the first time when China surpassed Germany to be the third largest country in patent filing. In 2013, China filed as many as 21,516 international patent applications, a dramatic increase of more than 15 percent over the previous year.
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"China established its patent law 30 years ago," said Gurry. "Now it found more international patent applications than Germany, that's exceptional and not many countries are capable of doing that."
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Japan and Germany filed 43,918 and 17,927 international patent applications respectively in 2013, according to WIPO.
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Meanwhile, in terms of company filers, Japan's Panasonic registered the most applications, who filed 2,881 patents in 2013, data showed.
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China's telecommunications companies ZTE and Huawei secured second and third places respectively, both filed more than 2,000 patents last year, according to the report.