International patent system (Patent Cooperation Treaty – PCT) Top 2024 PCT filers

In 2024, the total number of PCT filings reached 273,900, a 0.5% increase compared to 2023. China remained the top source, submitting 70,160 applications. Following China were the US (54,087 applications), Japan (48,397), the Republic of Korea (23,851), Germany (16,721) and France (8,125) (Annexe 1). While China and France returned to growth (respectively +0.9% and +2.7%), the US, Japan and Germany experienced declines of 2.8%, 1.2%, and 1.3%, respectively. This marks the third consecutive year of decrease for the US, and the second for both Germany and Japan. In contrast, the Republic of Korea saw strong growth of 7.1% - its 27^th successive year of growth. 

Huawei Technologies was the top PCT filer in 2024, with 6,600 published applications, followed by Samsung Electronics (Republic of Korea, 4,640 applications), Qualcomm (US, 3,848), LG Electronics (Republic of Korea, 2,083) and Contemporary Amperex Technology (China, 1,993) (Annexe 2). Japan, China and the US have the highest number of applicants in the top 100 filing entities, with 35, 21 and 19 respectively.

Among the top 10 applicants, Samsung Electronics saw the fastest growth, with 716 additional published applications in 2024. In contrast, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Japan) experienced a decrease of 196 applications compared to 2023. Outside the top 10, US tech giants Apple (441 additional applications) and Google (335 additional applications) both entered the top 20. While representing a range of industries, at least eight of the top 20 applicants operate in the mobile phone and telecommunications sectors.

The whole 2024 results for patents, trademarks and designs are available in the WIPO press release.