The Statistics Report 2019 Edition has been released recently by European Patent Office. The IP5 Statistics Report (IP5 SR) is an annual compilation of patent statistics for the five largest intellectual property offices–the IP5 Offices–namely the European patent Office (EPO), the Japan patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

• At the end of 2018, 13.9 million patents were in force in the world (+1.8 percent). 91 percent of these patents were in force in one of the IP5 Office jurisdictions.

• In 2018, 2.9 million patent applications were filed worldwide, either as direct national, direct regional or international phase PCT applications, of which 94 percent originated from the IP5 Blocs.

• In 2018, 89 percent of the worldwide patent applications were filed as direct national applications. The proportion of applications filed via the PCT remained stable.

• In 2019, 2.7 million patent applications were filed at the IP5 Offices (-4.0 percent).

• Together the IP5 Offices granted 1.3 million patents in 2019 (+5.9 percent).

• In 2019, the main developments at the IP5 Offices were:

- IP5: In June, the 12th meeting of the IP5 Heads of Office was held in Incheon, Korea. The IP5 Heads agreed in the meeting to launch a New Emerging Technologies/Artificial Intelligence Task Force with a view to responding appropriately to and exploring future joint initiatives related to global technological developments. The five leaders also agreed to improve the IP5 structure to achieve greater efficiency within the IP5 cooperation framework.

- EPO: In June 2019, the Administrative Council of the EPO approved the Strategic Plan 2023 aiming at delivering sustainability and excellence. Three new Vice-Presidents took up their duties on 1 January. In 2019, applications grew by 4 percent to 181,400 and almost 138,000 European patents were published. The pendency in examination was further reduced.

- JPO: the JPO has been aiming to achieve the“world’s fastest and utmost quality patent examinations”, and implementing various measures focused on “maintaining speed”, “granting high quality rights”. In 2019, the JPO received 307,969 patent applications, and the total pendency and the first action (FA) pendency were 14.3 and 9.5 months on average, respectively. Furthermore, the number of international search reports the JPO prepared under the PCT has been increasing in recent years and reached a record high of 51,666.

- KIPO: The annual average first office action pendency period was 10.3 months for patents and utility models. KIPO received a preliminary total of 510,968 applications for IPRs, including patents, utility models in 2019. The number of PCT applications filed from R. Korea increased by 11.5 percent from 16,991 in 2018 to 18,885 in 2019, which is the 5th largest amount by country of origin.

(Source: European Patent Office)