Per data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization on February 28, 2023, China remained the top originator of International Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications in 2022.  China has been the top originator of PCT applications since 2019.  China’s Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. was the top filer of PCT applications in 2022.  The PCT is an international treaty with more than 155 Contracting States that enables applicants to file a single PCT application designating a large number of countries.  However, national or regional patent offices still have the authority to examine and grant patents in their jurisdictions.

In 2022, China continued to be the top origin of PCT applications filed with 70,015 (up 0.6% from the previous year). The US came in second with 59,056 applications, (down 0.6% on 2021). Japan followed with 50,345 applications (+0.1%). The Republic of Korea and Germany rounded out the top five, with 22,012 applications and 17,530 applications respectively, growing 6.2% and 1.5% respectively.  India saw a 25.4% growth in filings, albeit from a low base of 2,087 applications in 2021 to 2,618 in 2022.

Top 10 originators of PCT applications in 2022

Three of the top 10 filers were Chinese including Huawei, Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd. and BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd. China’s Huawei remained the top filer with 7,689 published PCT applications in 2022. Samsung Electronics of the Republic of Korea came in second (4,387 applications), followed by Qualcomm of the US (3,855), Mitsubishi Electric of Japan (2,320) and Ericsson of Sweden (2,158). Oppo remained in sixth place with 1,963 PCT applications, a small drop from 2021. BOE tied with NTT in seventh place with 1884 PCT applications, a small drop from 2021.

Top 10 filers of PCT applications in 2022

Similarly, three of the top 10 university filers were Chinese: Zhejiang University at second place, Suzhou University in third place and Tsinghua University in sixth place. University of California was first place in 2022.

Top 10 university filers of PCT applications in 2022

The data from WIPO is available here: pr-2023-899-annexes