The U.S. and China drove patent-filing activity through...

The U.S. and China drove patent-filing activity through the World Intellectual Property Organization to record levels last year, as the number of annual international patent applications surpassed the 200,000 mark for the first time, said WIPO. The number of 2013 filings under WIPO’s Patent and Cooperation Treaty (PCT) program reached 205,300, a 5.1 percent increase from 2012, WIPO said. The U.S. accounted for 56 percent of the PCT growth last year, and China 29 percent, it said Thursday. With 57,239 applications in 2013, the U.S. exceeded its previous filing peak of 54,046 applications in 2007, before the height of the global financial crisis, WIPO said. China surpassed Germany to become the third-largest user of the PCT system, with Japan in second place, it said. Panasonic, with 2,881 published PCT applications, overtook China’s ZTE as the largest filer in 2013, it said.