The report was extended from the “World Patent Report” 2006 version issued by WIPO, covering four categories of development in the IP arena, namely invention patents, utility model patents, trademarks and design patents. Its data mainly came from the WIPO Statistics Database, annual reports from countries’ national IP management departments, the World Bank, UNESCO, the trilateral statistical reports.

In terms of trademarks, in 2007, approximately 3.3 million trademark applications were submitted around the world, a 1.6% increase compared to 2006. However, current available data show that in 2008 the total trademark applications tended to have a negative growth. In 2007, 20.6% of the world total trademark applications was ascribed to China, 9.2% to the United States. Chinese residents and U.S. residents enjoyed the largest shares of the trademark registration. They each accounted for 11% of the total in 2007.

At the same time, the report also showed that there was still a huge gap between China and developed countries’ R & D capabilities in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, transportation and other major fields.

http://www.sipo.gov.cn/sipo_English/news/iprspecial/200912/t20091225_486271.html