China's international patent filings grew sixfold since 2010
International patent applications (PCT) by inventor's country of origin, 2025 versus 2010.
China filed more PCT patent applications in 2025 than any country, 21,000 more than the US.
China's share of the world's international filings more than tripled in 15 years.
Huawei is the world's top filer, ahead of Samsung (4,698) and Qualcomm (3,227).
the numbers
| Applications | 2010 | World share (%) | 2010 (%) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 73,718 | 12,337 | 26.7 | 7.6 |
| United States | 52,617 | 44,855 | 19.1 | 27.5 |
| Japan | 47,922 | 32,156 | 17.4 | 19.7 |
| South Korea | 25,016 | 9,686 | 9.1 | 5.9 |
| Germany | 16,441 | 17,171 | 6.0 | 10.5 |
| France | 7,778 | 7,193 | 2.8 | 4.4 |
| United Kingdom | 5,809 | 4,857 | 2.1 | 3.0 |
| Switzerland | 5,012 | 3,611 | 1.8 | 2.2 |
| Netherlands | 4,239 | 4,097 | 1.5 | 2.5 |
| Sweden | 3,857 | 3,152 | 1.4 | 1.9 |
| Italy | 3,297 | 2,632 | 1.2 | 1.6 |
| India | 3,070 | 1,109 | 1.1 | 0.7 |
source notes & method
2025 counts are WIPO estimates (total 275,900); 2010 counts are WIPO's provisional figures as first published in Feb 2011 (total 162,900) and may differ slightly from later revisions. Shares are progrss calculations (country count / world total). Company counts are published PCT applications in 2025. In 2010 Huawei filed 1,528 and ranked 4th. Corrected 3 Nov 2026: title shortened to 10 words or fewer; no change to the data.
Published 3 Oct 2026
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