According to Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on September 18, PCT applications grew 19% in the first half.  The DG also predicts the total number of PCT applications for 2009 is on track to fall 5%.

Evidently hit by the financial crisis, applications from the U.S. dropped 14%.

Also shown on the latest WIPO report, there were 163,600 PCT applications in 2008, up 2.3%.  The growth rate gives up to 3.7% in 2007 and 5.2% in 2006.

Applications of Chinese origin climbed 11.9% to 6,089 in the same year, ranking No.6 in the world, following U.S. (53,521), Japan (28,774), Germany (18,427), Republic of Korea (7,908) and France (6,867).

(China IP News)