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On Monday, February 8, 2010, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released statistics for 2009, comparing the numbers to prior years in connection with Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) patent application filings. These statistics (available HERE on WIPO?s website) show a general decrease in PCT application filings of 4.5% when comparing 2009 to 2008, noting that several East Asian countries actually had more PCT filings over 2008. For example, PCT applications filed from China were up nearly 30% over 2008, with Japan and the Republic of Korea also showing increases in 2009. On the other end, the United States had a noted drop of 11.4%, Germany decreased 11.2%, Canada fell 11.7%, and Sweden had a 11.3% decrease in PCT filings in 2009 as compared to 2008. When looking at the number of applications filed, the United States had the most PCT filings (45,790), followed by Japan (29,827), Germany (16,736), the Republic of Korea (8,066), and China (7,946) being the top five filing countries. Additional statistics are available for all PCT countries, the top filing companies, and by technology area within the announcement link above.

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