World Intellectual Property Indicators- 2019 | 19 Oct 2019

According to the United Nations, World Intellectual Property Indicators Report-2019, global Intellectual Property (IP) filing activity continued to grow at a rapid pace.

  • In 2018, patent filings around the world exceeded by around 3.3 million, representing a 5.2% growth over 2017 figures.
    • Asia accounted for two-thirds of these applications, being the global hub for IP applications.
  • China has been at the leading position of global growth in worldwide IP filings in 2018 whereas the United States of America marked its first decline since 2009.
  • In India, there was a large increase in the number of filings with respect to
    • Trademark filing activity (+20.9%),
    • Patent filings (+7.5%), and
    • Industrial design filing activity (+13.6%), marking almost double-digit growth in 2018. For India, this was the third successive year of double-digit growth.

    • Amongst the middle-income countries in the period from 2015 to 2017, applicants residing in India (16.8% of total published applications) mostly filed the patents related to the pharmaceuticals sector.
    • The share of withdrawn or abandoned applications was also highest in India (66.2%).
      • However, India reduced the number of pending applications by 25% in 2018 compared over the last year (2017).
  • Trade Mark: A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. The term "trademark" is often used to refer to both trademarks and service marks. Unlike patents and copyrights, trademarks do not expire after a set term of years. Instead, a trademark can last forever, so long as the owner continues to use the mark in commerce to indicate the source of goods and services.
  • Patents: A patent is a limited duration property right relating to an invention, granted by the Trademark Office in exchange for public disclosure of the invention. Patentable materials include machines, manufactured articles, industrial processes, and chemical compositions. The duration of patent protection is 20 years in the case of India.
  • Copyright: A copyright protects works of authorship that have been tangibly expressed in a physical form. Example - songs, books, movies, and works of art.
  • Industrial Design: in a legal sense, an industrial design constitutes the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article. It may consist of three-dimensional features, such as the shape of an article, or two-dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or colours.

Source: ET