China’s Scihead IP Group retains top spot for most PCT applications in 2023
Chinese and Japanese law firms once again dominated the rankings table of the 50 law and attorney firms filing the most published PCT applications last year, with Chinese firms responsible for more than 60% of those filings.
China’s Scihead IP Group has yet again scooped the top spot. It filed 2,067 applications in 2023, which is a slight dip from previous years (it filed 2,567 applications in 2022 and 2,469 in 2021), although this may be because of a delay in applications being published. The Chinese firm was listed in first place in the rankings for both prior years.
The only US firm to feature in the top 10 in 2021, Fish & Richardson, fell to 22nd place in 2023, leaving no firms from outside of China or Japan to break into the top ten – or even the top 20 – this year.
German and UK firms dropped out of the top 50, leaving only firms from China, Japan, the US and Korea to fill the rankings.
The full results can be seen in the tables below and were compiled for IAM by IP Pilot, based on the number of PCT patent applications first published in 2023. The data is accurate as of 1 January.
The third most prolific filer of 2022 – China’s TDIP & Partners – sank to sixth place in 2023, after filing 451 fewer applications. TDIP & Partners’ dip has allowed Japanese firms Shiga International Patent Office and Sakai International Patent Office to move up the table, although the ratio of firms from Japan to those from China has remained the same over the past two years (2:8).
In 2023, the firm with the greatest growth was Jiaquan IP Law Firm. The IP-Pilot data also shows this company has been continuously increasing its application volumes year-on-year. Last year, it filed 1,161 applications, placing it at 14th place overall. This was the result of a 369 increase on 2022, in which it submitted 792 applications and was placed 31st in the rankings.
Eight of the top 10 firms that showed the highest increase in applications in 2023 on the previous year were all Chinese. Following Jiaquan IP Law Firm, there was Purplevine Intellectual Property (Shenzhen) (up 342), Sanyou IP Group (up 269), Kangxin Partners (up 231) and Cenfo Intellectual Property Agency (up 209).
At the opposite end of the leaderboard, Scihead IP Group’s figures were down a total of 500 but were closely followed by a mix of Chinese, US and Korean firms. Those included, in descending order, TDIP & Partners (down 451), Yoon & Lee (down 350), Fish & Richardson (down 248) and Envision Patent & Law Firm (down 228). It is worth noting that Fish & Richardson’s decrease in applications meant the firm sank from 13th place in 2022 to 22nd place in 2023.
A total of 47,600 PCT applications were first published in 2023.
Firms based in China accounted for 60% of this total (28,714 applications), with Japan coming in second at 10,227 filings. Other countries in which firms filed the most applications were the US (5,477) and Korea (3,182). German and UK firms, which had both previously featured in the top 50 were knocked out this year.
Looking at the top 50 filers, Chinese firms hold more than half (27) of the table, followed by Japan (10), the US (eight) and Korea (five).
IAM would like to thank IP Pilot for supplying the data for this analysis. Two more data pieces on representatives before the EPO and the USPTO will be published in the coming weeks for our subscribers.
