More than two million patent applications were filed at the world's largest IP offices last year, new figures have revealed.

In the last year, 2.1 million patent applications were filed at the Japan Patent Office, Korean Intellectual Property Office, US Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office and China's State Intellectual Property Office, known as the 'IP5'.

It represents an 11% increase on last year.

The figures were revealed in the IP5 Statistics Report for 2013, published by the five offices.

The latest edition of the report also found that between them the IP5 offices granted 956,644 patents in 2013, an increase of 4% on last year.

In the report, the offices said the agreement of a Patent Prosecution Highway between the offices reduced examination workload and that patent quality was expected it to grow in the future.

(Source: China Daily)