WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Yearly Review 2023

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently published the 2023 edition of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Yearly Review.

The annual review presents easily accessible statistical data on trends in PCT applications, PCT national phase entries and the health of the international patent system. It also provides rankings on the biggest filing countries, multinationals, and the technical fields that are growing the fastest.

This year’s special theme centres on the welcome expansion of the PCT System from 20 member states, including Japan, in 1978 to today’s worldwide system covering over 80% of countries globally.

Global Top 10 International Patent Applications 1990-2022

Japan’s global presence

As always, Japan is prominent throughout the review, given its status as one of the ‘big beasts’ on the international patent scene, particularly in driving the success of the PCT system.

For instance, applicants from Japan have been responsible for 17.6% of all PCT applications in the 44 years since 1978. Only the US (28.9%) has had a larger share.

In 2022, the most active filers were from China, with 70,015 PCT applications originating from there. They were followed by applicants residing in the US (2nd, 59,056) and Japan (3rd, 50,345).

Almost three-quarters (73%) of the 4.8 million PCT applications filed since 1978 were filed by applicants residing in China, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the US. Their combined share has trended upwards over time, growing from around 67% in 2000 to 79% in 2022.

(PCT Year Review 2023)

Top PCT applicants

Chinese telecom conglomerate Huawei Technologies was the top PCT filer in 2022, with 7,689 published applications. Three Japanese companies also made the top 10: Mitsubishi Electric (4th, 2,320 applications), NTT (7th, 1,184 applications) and Panasonic IP Management (10th, 1,776 applications).

In fact, 17 of the top 50 business applicants in 2022 were Japanese-based companies, followed by China (11), the US (9), Germany (5) and Korea (4) based businesses.

Language of filing

Also, last year, around 18% of all PCT applications were first published in the Japanese language – English (43%) and Chinese (23.4%) being the other top hitters.

The top PCT geographical clusters

Tokyo–Yokohama was the largest PCT cluster between 2018 and 2022, with 127,418 PCT applications, or over 10% of all PCT applications during that period. Tokyo–Yokohama was followed by the Shenzhen–Hong Kong–Guangzhou, Seoul, and San Jose–San Francisco clusters. 

PCT Clusters are geographical areas within national economies or across borders that have a high density of inventors based on patent filings. They highlight the degree of innovation at the local level.

More information on the PCT system and filing in Japan

For more on the PCT system, see our article here, or check out our Intro to Filing in Japan and Patent System Q&A.

To learn more about how filing your applications in Japan could benefit your organisation, please contact us at KIPB Japan.

Link to Patent Cooperation Treaty Yearly Review – 2023