TIPO releases statistics report of patent and trademark applications in 2023

　TIPO released the statistics report of patent and trademark applications in 2023, according to which TIPO received a total of 72,607 applications for three kinds of patents, reflecting a 1% increase compared to the previous year.  Among the 72,607 applications, there were 50,854 applications filed for invention patents, growing by 1% and hitting an 11-year record high, while the applications for utility model patents dropped by 1% to 14,466 filings.  However, the design patent applications experienced a positive reversal to rise by 2% with 7,287 filings.  On the other hand, there were a total of 91,535 trademark applications filed with TIPO in 2023, down by 3%.  As to examination efficiency, the average first action pendency was 8.9 months for invention patent applications and 6.2 months for trademark applications

Rise in invention and design patent applications and moderate fall in utility model patent applications filed by resident applicants 

　Mainly due to a 4% growth in filings from corporations, invention patent applications filed by resident applicants amounted to 19,634 cases, increasing by 1%.  On the contrary, utility model patent applications totaled 13,309 cases to reflect a moderate decrease of 3% compared to 2022.  It is noticeable that design patent applications amounted to 3,437 filings, marking a 1% rise and ending a downturn for 6 years, mainly attributable to the leap in the filings from school and individual applicants.  

Record high in invention applications by non-resident applicants and also increase in utility model and design patent applications 

　The number of non-resident applications for inventions reached a record high at 31,220 filings, upward by 1%.  The growth was also seen in utility model applications and design patent applications in 1,157 filings and 3,850 filings, respectively, which marked an advance by 17% and 3% each.  

　With 13,504 overall patent applications filed, Japan stayed at the top position in the ranking of top five non-resident filing countries (regions) and saw a 3% growth to surpass the U.S. (with 7,647 filings), China (with 5,002 filings), South Korea (with 3,299 filings), and Germany (with 1,198 filings).  Among the top five non-resident filing countries, both South Korea and China hit their all-time highs, and South Korea experienced the highest growth rate at 19% among the top five filing countries (regions).  China also had a sharp growth rate of 13%.  On the contrary, the growth rates of the U.S. and Germany fell by 10% and 4%, respectively.  Also, analysis by the types of patents reveals that Japan contributed the most invention and design patent applications, while China led in the number of utility model patent applications.  

Fall of the number of trademark applications to returning to the pre-COVID-19 levels

　In 2023, TIPO received a total of 91,535 trademark applications, which marked a 3% decline (or down by 6% in terms of a total of 114,680 classes of applications) and returned to the pre-pandemic levels in 2019.  The downturn in trademark application number was mainly attributable to a 3% slip in the number of resident applications to 71,960 cases and also a 4% fall in non-resident applications to 19,575 cases.  

　As to the top five trademark filing countries (regions), China topped the ranking with 4,822 applications, up by 12% , ahead of the U.S. (with 3,007 applications), Japan (with 2,899 applications).  Both the U.S. and Japan experienced their downward trends each at 16% and 18%.  

Uni-President sitting comfortably at the top position as the top resident applicant for the fourth time and Tencent Holdings Limited leading in the non-resident applicant ranking 

　The local enterprise, Uni-President had filed a total of 583 trademark applications throughout 2023 to claim the top honor for the fourth straight year since 2020, trailed by Taishin Bank (with 454 applications) and Che Tai Int. (with 163 applications).  As for the non-resident applicants, Tencent Holdings of Cayman Islands was the top applicant with 118 applications, followed by Int. Foodstuffs of United Arab Emirates (with 93 applications) and L’Oreal of France (with 90 applications).  

　With respect to the classes of resident trademark applications, the most popular class was Class 35 (advertising, business management, and retailing and wholesaling services) that covered 14,477 applications, ahead of Class 43 (restaurant and accommodation services) that covered 7,187 applications and Class 30 (coffee, tea, and pastries) that covered 6,390 applications.  The top ten classes all experienced a decline from 2.4% to 12.6%, except for Class 43, Class25 (clothing and footwear) that covered 2,896 applications and remained stable.  

　Also for the classes of non-resident applications, Class 9 (computers and technology products) topped the list with 3,910 applications.  Except for Class 30 (coffee, tea and pastries) that covered 1,116 applications to grow by 6.7%, the applications of the other top ten classes all dropped by 2.1%~23.5%.  

Stable patent examination pendency that contributes to businesses’ patent portfolio 

　TIPO has been maintaining a steady and reasonable examination pendency period by taking 8.9 months to issue the first office action for invention patent examination, which forms a balance between examination quality and efficiency that help businesses secure patent rights and facilitate their patent portfolio.  As for trademark application examination, the average first office action pendency rose by 1 month to 6.2 months as a result of the growing number of applications in the past eight consecutive years and also the limited manpower for examination by TIPO.  In spite of that, TIPO had still concluded examination of 90,043 applications, which accounted for 98.37% of all applications for the year.  (Released 2024.02.06)  
/CCS