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GENEVA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - A burst of international patent
applications from China, Korea and Japan boosted global filings
to a record high last year, the World Intellectual Property
Organisation (WIPO) said on Friday.
Chinese firms sought 44 percent more international patents
in 2005 than the year before, in what WIPO Deputy Director
General Francis Gurry described as a concerted push to protect
the country's booming high-technology products abroad.
"As Chinese enterprises look to export markets ... they
become more concerned about international patent protection,"
Gurry told reporters at a press briefing.
Though Beijing has come under immense U.S. pressure to
tighten its intellectual property and anti-piracy rules at home,
Gurry said the country's large investments in research and
development have engendered more corporate interest in patents.
Filings from companies including telecoms equipment makers
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. <HWT.UL> and ZTE Corp. <0763.HK>
made China the 10th largest international patent seeker in 2005
-- ahead of Australia, Italy and Canada.
The United States, Japan and Germany logged the most
international applications last year. Netherlands-based consumer
electronics group Philips PHG.AS was the largest individual
filer with nearly 2,500 applications, WIPO said.
Worldwide, applications rose 9 percent to a record of more
than 134,000 in 2005, with Asia posting the biggest gains.
In the Chinese surge, Japanese firms applied for 24 percent
more international patents in 2005 and Korean companies sought
34 percent more. The three Asian countries accounted for nearly
a quarter of all filings last year, Gurry said.
International patents, applied for through the WIPO's Patent
Cooperation Treaty, are a means for companies to seek protection
for an invention in several countries at once.
The WIPO mechanism streamlines some procedures and can
postpone national patent filing requirements, giving companies
more time to research potential commercial interest in their
products.
((UN-PATENTS; Reporting by Laura MacInnis;
[e-mail]; Reuters Messaging:
[e-mail]; [phone]))