* indicates monthly or quarterly data series

Patent applications by residents, 2021:

The average for 2021 based on 32 countries was 58871 patent applications. The highest value was in China: 1426644 patent applications and the lowest value was in Brunei: 2 patent applications. The indicator is available from 1980 to 2021. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Measure: patent applications; Source: The World Intellectual Property Organization
Select indicator
* indicates monthly or quarterly data series


Countries Patent applications by residents, 2021 Global rank Available data
China 1426644 1 1985 - 2021
Japan 222452 2 1980 - 2021
South Korea 186245 3 1980 - 2021
India 26267 4 1980 - 2021
Iran 10210 5 1980 - 2021
Singapore 2024 6 1980 - 2021
Israel 1592 7 1980 - 2021
Saudi Arabia 1398 8 1989 - 2021
Indonesia 1397 9 1980 - 2021
Vietnam 1066 10 1984 - 2021
Malaysia 883 11 1985 - 2021
Thailand 867 12 1980 - 2021
Philippines 490 13 1980 - 2021
Pakistan 426 14 1980 - 2021
Uzbekistan 413 15 1993 - 2021
Hong Kong 401 16 1983 - 2021
Sri Lanka 266 17 1980 - 2021
Azerbaijan 119 18 1995 - 2021
Mongolia 109 19 1983 - 2021
Syria 102 20 1980 - 2021
Georgia 90 21 1992 - 2021
Kyrgyzstan 83 22 1994 - 2021
Bangladesh 74 23 1980 - 2021
UA Emirates 69 24 2010 - 2021
Qatar 47 25 2012 - 2021
Armenia 40 26 1993 - 2021
Oman 30 27 2015 - 2021
Jordan 25 28 1989 - 2021
Yemen 20 29 1998 - 2021
Bahrain 3 30 1981 - 2021
Brunei 2 31 2012 - 2021
Macao 2 32 2005 - 2021



Definition: Patent applications are worldwide patent applications filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty procedure or with a national patent office for exclusive rights for an invention--a product or process that provides a new way of doing something or offers a new technical solution to a problem. A patent provides protection for the invention to the owner of the patent for a limited period, generally 20 years.

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