China filed 1.5 million patents last year, nearly half of the rest of the world

China patents application reached a record 1.54 million, nearly half of all the patent applications filed worldwide, according to a recent report.

It was the first time that China leaped ahead of the U.S., which came in at a distant second place with 597,141 applications for patents to protect its intellectual property.

Most of the share of these applications was in the field of telecommunications and computer technology, said World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

In comparison to 2017, China’s share has increased by 11.6%.

The country that comes in at number two for the most number of patents filed in 2018 is the United States.

Innovators and companies from the country filed close to 600,000 patents in this year which is 1.6% less compared to the preceding year.

Globally, innovators filed for 3.3 million patents, 14.3 million trademark applications and 1.3 million industrial applications, of which more than two-thirds originated from Asia.

“Asia increasingly became the global centre of international patent applications ,“ said Francis Curry , the director of WIPO.

Another country that he pointed out was India saying the their “growth is amazing”.

While addressing the number of patents filed overseas in 2018, the U.S. applicants filed close to 230,000 patent applications whereas China filed 66,400 about patents.

It's worth noting though the 1.5 million is a domestic figure, representing patents filed within China to nationally.

It’s not the international picture or patents filed via the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization.

Looked at from that WIPO score, U.S.-based applicants filed for 56,142 patents applications or 22 percent of the total, followed by 53,345 from China at 21 percent.