AS per the UN IP Agency, China registered the most patent applications globally last year. China received 526,412 applications compared to 503,582 for the United States and 342,610 for Japan, according to the latest report from the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The report, ''World Intellectual Property Indicators 2012'', also said that global patent filings passed the two-million mark for the first time – despite the sluggish global economy.

“Sustained growth in IP filings indicates that companies continue to innovate despite weak economic conditions,” said WIPO’s Director General, Francis Gurry. “This is good news, as it lays the foundation for the world economy to generate growth and prosperity in the future.”

As part of its mandate to encourage IP in order to stimulate creativity, WIPO monitors global registration of patents, copyright, trademarks, designs and utility models (UMs) – the latter being instruments that protect inventions for a limited period of time.

Ahead of 2011, China had already been the world’s largest processor of UMs, WIPO reported.

Only Germany, Japan and the United States had held the top spot during the 100 years before 2011, with China accounting for 72 per cent of the almost 294,000 increase in patent filings worldwide between 2009 and 2011

“Even though caution is required in directly comparing IP filing figures across countries, these trends nevertheless reflect how the geography of innovation has shifted,” Mr. Gurry said in the WIPO report’s foreword.

According to the report, patent filings worldwide grew by 7.8 per cent in 2011, exceeding seven per cent growth for the second year in a row, after a 3.6 per cent decline in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Similarly, UM, industrial design and trademark filings increased by 35 per cent, 16 per cent and 13.3 per cent, respectively, said the agency.