According to the latest data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China applied for 68,720 patents through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) in 2020, ranking first in the world.

Following closely is the United States with 59,230 patent applications, followed by Japan and South Korea in third and fourth place.

The report pointed out that the number of global patent applications increased by 4% in 2020, with the total number of applications reaching 275,900, setting a record number.

China has submitted patent applications to WIPO since 1993.

It is reported that there was only one application that year, and until 1999 it was only 276. After 28 years, this number has increased a hundred times.

In terms of enterprises, China's Huawei is far ahead with 5,464 applications, becoming the world's largest source of applications for four consecutive years.

Following them are South Korea's Samsung (3093 pieces), Japan's Mitsubishi (2810 pieces), South Korea's LG (2759 pieces), China's BOE (1892 pieces) and China's OPPO (1801 pieces).

Among the top ten, Chinese companies account for three, and more than half of them are mainly engaged in the field of digital communications.

In addition, affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, the number of international trademark applications submitted through the World Intellectual Property Organization decreased by 0.6% in 2020, reaching 63,800. This is the first decline since the global financial crisis from 2008 to 2009. The number of industrial design applications fell for the first time since 2006, by 15%, to 18,580.

The World Intellectual Property Report shows that over the past decade, the growth in global patent applications has exceeded global GDP. China's Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. has been the largest source of applications for the fourth consecutive year. Five of the top ten universities with the largest number of applications are from China. From a field perspective, computer technology accounts for the largest proportion of global patent applications, followed by digital communications and medical technology.

Among the patents applied for in China, Huawei ranks first with 5,464 applications. It is understood that this is the fourth consecutive year that Huawei has become the largest source of applications. Five of the top ten universities with the largest number of applications are from China. From a field perspective, computer technology accounts for the largest proportion of global patent applications, followed by digital communications and medical technology.

According to data from the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, as of the end of February 2020, the distribution chart of the number of patent applications in China’s intelligent hardware industry by department is as follows. The highest proportion is in the field of G physics, accounting for Reaching 45.75%, followed by the H electrical field, accounting for 35.18%, the cumulative number of patent applications in these two fields accounted for 80.93%. It can be seen that the fields of physics and electricity are the most important patent technology directions in the intelligent hardware industry.