Patents, trademarks, industrial designs reach new records

Innovators across the globe filed 3.17 million patent applications in 2017, up 5.8% for an eighth straight yearly increase, according to WIPO’s annual World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report. Global trademark filing activity totaled 12.39 million, while that for industrial designs reached 1.24 million. China recorded the highest application volume for each of these IP rights as innovators and creators inside the country, as well as foreign entities, seek to protect and promote their work in one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies.