According to the data released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the country that led new patent applications was China, with 68,729 up from 59,193 applications in 2019, followed by the United States of America (59,230) and Japan (50,520).

In the ranking of countries with the highest number of patent applications registered, South Korea, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands follow, in that order - the latter with 4,035, 20 fewer than in 2019.

According to WIPO data, Portugal filed 269 international patent applications in 2020, an increase from 198 applications in 2019.

In the analysis by companies, China’s Huawei maintained the global lead in patent applications, with 5,464, followed by South Korean Samsung (3,093) and Japan’s Mitsubishi (2,810).

South Korean LG appears in 4th position, with 2,759 applications, a number that led it to gain six positions by comparison with the 2019 ranking.

The WIPO report showed that, by sectors, most patent applications in 2020 are related to advances in computer science (9.2 percent), digital communication (8.3 percent) and medical technology (6.6 percent).

Even though the data shows that innovation and new patents have not been affected by the pandemic, the same is not true for the launch of new brands. In this case, a drop of 0.6 percent was observed compared to 2019, to 63,800.

WIPO attributes this slight decrease to the slowdown in the introduction of new products on the market due to the global health crisis. This is the first drop in this indicator since the 2008 financial crisis, although the decline, there are fewer new brands recorded in the United States, Germany and France, while China and the United Kingdom showed an opposite trend.

In Portugal, the number has fallen from 223 in 2019 to 188 last year.