NEW DELHI — India’s patents and industrial design filings for Intellectual Property rights doubled between 2018 and 2023, taking the country to the sixth rank, according to the latest World Intellectual Property Organisation’s (WIPO) annual report. For the first time, India was included in the top 10 countries of the world for three main intellectual property (IP) rights: patents, industrial design applications, and trademark applications. The patent filing in India has shown the fifth consecutive year of a double-digit growth rate. According to the WIPO report, the number of patents filed in India in 2023 was 64,480. The country’s growth rate in patent filing was 15.7 per cent compared to 2022. The report states that more than 35 lakh patents were filed worldwide in 2023 and this was the fourth successive year that global patent filing has shown positive growth. In 2023, the maximum patent filing was in China (1.64 million), followed by the United States of America (518,364), Japan (414,413), South Korea (287,954), Germany (133,053) and India (64,480). Asia remains the top spot for patents, accounting for 68.7 per cent, 66.7 per cent, and 69 per cent of global patent, trademark, and industrial design filing activity, respectively, in 2023....