Switzerland was the eighth biggest source of international patent applications and second of design applications last year, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Switzerland moved up the WIPO 2017 ranking by one place with a total of 4,491 international patent applications (+2.8%). It nonetheless remains well behind first-placed United States (56,624), China (48,882; +36%) and Japan (48,208). “The rate of growth of patents [in 2017] exceeds again that of the world economy,” WIPO director-general Francis Gurry told a press conference in Geneva on Wednesday. The top filers of patent applications at WIPO in 2017 were Chinese technology companies Huawei and ZTE Corp, followed by US-based Intel Corp, Japan's Mitsubishi Electric Corp and the US company Qualcomm Inc. At current rates, China will overtake the US to become the biggest source of international patent applications in the WIPO system within three years, WIPO said. Swiss firms included the ...
