Patent applications in China have gained a lot of ground in recent years, reflecting the rising level of innovation in the country, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said on Friday.

In 2005, for which the latest complete statistics are now available, China's patent office saw a record 42.1 percent growth in resident patent filings, the UN agency said in its annual world patent report.

China's patent office processed more than 173,000 patent applications in 2005, among which 93,172 were direct filings by Chinese residents, the report said, adding that patent applications by non-residents (foreign individuals and companies) also increased markedly in China.

Worldwide, about 1,660,000 patent applications were filed in 2005, an increase of 7 percent over 2004, the report said.

The largest recipients of patent filings are the patent offices of Japan, the United States, China, South Korea and the European Patent Office. These five offices accounted for 77 percent of all patents filed in 2005.

According to the report, Northeast Asian countries, particularly China and South Korea, have significantly increased their share of worldwide patenting.

The South Korean patent office received over 160,000 patent applications (including both resident and non-resident applications) in 2005, a 14.8 percent increase year-on-year.

The geography of innovation is having a significant shift, WIPO Deputy Director-General Francis Gurry told reporters in Geneva.

"A few years ago, they took the patent world by surprise, but it is now much expected that countries like China and the Republic of Korea will continue their rapid developments in innovation, a proof of which is the number of patent applications filed," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2007)