Global demand for intellectual property tools soars, China driving growth: report

The IP office of China had the highest volume of filing activity with a class count of around 5.7 million, followed by the US (613,921), Japan (560,269), the European Union Intellectual Property Office (371,508), and Iran (358,353).

China's IP office also received the highest number of patent applications in 2017, a record total of 1.38 million. Trailing China's IP office were the IP offices of the United States (606,956), Japan (318,479), South Korea (204,775), and the European Patent Office (166,585).