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China filed the highest number of international patent applications in 2025, beating its main technology rival the United States for the second year in a row, data from a new United Nations report showed on Friday.
China’s patent applications increased by 5.3% to 73,718, while the United States filed 52,617, a decrease of 3%. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) says this is the fourth consecutive year of decline in U.S. patent applications in report.
This is followed by Japan (47,922), South Korea (25,016) and Germany (16,441). WIPO noted that the number of applications from South Korea increased by 4.9%.
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Chinese technology giant Huawei remains in first place with 7,523 patent applications, a position it has held since 2017.
Meanwhile, Huawei’s South Korean rival Samsung filed 4,698 patents, followed by US company Qualcomm (3,227) and South Korean battery giant LG Electronics (2,400).
Huawei also submitted the highest number of published industrial designs in 2025, followed by Chinese electric car and smartphone maker Xiaomi.
Among the top 100 companies with patent applications, 32 are from Japan, 24 from China, and 17 from the United States.
Overall, 16 of the top 20 applicants were in the information and communications technology field, WIPO reported. These include India’s Jio Platforms, Finland’s Nokia Technologies, Japan’s NTT Docomo and China’s Beijing Zitiao Network Technology.
The remaining four companies – China’s CATL, LG Energy Solutions, Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric and Germany’s Robert Bosch – are active in the energy and automotive industries.
“Artificial intelligence is the engine”
WIPO, the United Nations agency responsible for patents and innovation, said in its annual overview that the number of global international patent applications overall increased by 0.7% in 2025, reaching 275,900.
WIPO Chief Economist Carsten Fink said at a press conference that behind the moderate growth, innovation activity in the field of digital technology was strong.
“This pattern clearly reflects the continued importance of digital technologies as a driver of global innovation,” he said.
“It may also reflect a surge in investment in artificial intelligence, which increases demand for advanced computer infrastructure and chips,” he added.
Digital communications is the number one category for international patent applications, growing 6% last year, as did semiconductor patent applications.
Fink told a news conference that by 2025, they will be the fastest growing among the 10 top technology areas.
“International patent applications – particularly in the areas of digital communications and semiconductor technologies – reflect how digital technologies continue to drive the global innovation landscape,” WIPO Director General Daren Tang said in a report on Friday.
“Artificial intelligence is the latest engine of this growth and will increasingly change the way we innovate.”
- AFP, with additional editing and input by Vishakha Saxena
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