International patent applications filed through WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) rose 0.7% in 2025 to reach 275,900 filings worldwide, marking a second consecutive year of growth.
The increase was partly due to robust activity in ICT related fields, with digital communication remaining as the top category (11.1%) of published PCT applications, while semiconductors recorded one of the fastest growth rates among all leading areas of international patents.
These trends reflect the continued rise in digital technologies as an engine of innovative activity and economic development, with the increasing investments in and deployment of Artificial Intelligence helping to fuel this growth.
International patent filings – particularly in digital communication and semiconductor technologies – reflects how digital technologies continue to drive the global innovation landscape.
“AI is the latest engine of this growth and will increasingly transform how we innovate. In this world of shortened innovation and business cycles, WIPO will work hard to ensure that our Global IP Services keeps pace with the changing expectations of our customers, making what we offer more efficient, more digital and more customer centered, so that entrepreneurs and enterprises can continue using the PCT, Madrid and Hague systems to secure IP protection across borders,” says Daren Tang, WIPO director general.
Other prominent fields include computer technology (9.6%), electrical machinery (9.0%), medical technology (6.3%) and pharmaceuticals (4.3%).
Together, these five fields represented just over 40% of all published PCT applications. Among the top 10 technology fields, digital communication (+6.1%) and semiconductors (+6.1%) saw the fastest growth rates in 2025.
In the international trademark system, the most specified class in international applications received under WIPO’s Madrid System for the International Registration of Marks covered computer hardware and software and other electrical or electronic apparatus, accounting for 10.8% of the 2025 total.
It was followed by the class covering business services (8.5%) and the one relating to scientific and technological services (7.9%).
And the largest share of total designs received under WIPO’s Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs was in recording and communication equipment (13.2%), closely followed by means of transport (8.0%) and packages and containers (7.9%).
