TIPO overview of trademark and patent applications filed in 2025

　On February 26, 2026, TIPO published the statistics of patent and trademark applications in 2025, according to which there were a total of 71,965 applications filed for three kinds of patents, down 1% from 2024.  Among these applications, invention patent applications rose by 1% year-on-year to 51,230, while utility model patent applications and design patents dropped by 4% and 8% to 14,000 and 6,735, respectively.  Meanwhile, trademark applications hit a historical high of 97,411, covering 124,242 classes.  On the other hand, the average first action pendency for invention patent applications and the average pendency for trademark applications were 8.0 and 5.6 months, respectively, down 0.4 and 0.5 months from 2024, which helps businesses secure their rights earlier and strengthen their industrial IP deployment.  

1.  Domestic invention patent applications remained constant, while utility model patent and design patent applications declined.  

Domestic applicants filed 19,511 invention patent applications, which represented a slight year-on-year decrease of 0.4%. Utility model applications totaled 12,574, while design patent applications reached 3,192, down 6% and 4%, respectively.  By applicant type, invention patent applications filed by enterprises and research institutions decreased by 1% and 2%, respectively, while applications filed by universities increased by 8%. For utility model and design patents, applications from both enterprises and academic and research institutions declined.

2.  Foreign invention patent applications rose, while foreign design patent applications sank.  

　The number of foreign invention patent applications has been constantly moving upward since 2021 and reached to 31,719 in 2025, up 2%.  The leading foreign applicant was Japan with 12,524 filings, trailed by the U.S. (with 6,954 filings), China (3,703 filings), South Korea (with 3,346 filings), and Germany (with 1,051 filings).  

　On the other hand, foreign design patent applications totaled 3,543 in 2025, marking a 12% year-on-year decrease.  Japan also topped the design patent application ranking with 852 filings, followed by the U.S. (621 filings), China (605 filings), Switzerland (456 filings), and South Korea (169 filings).  Among these foreign applicants, Switzerland recorded a notable growth of 23%, contrary to Japan’s decline by 3% and also the U.S.’s, China’s, and South Korea’s reduction from 15% to 20% in the same aspect.    

3.  Domestic trademark applications hit record high, and trends in foreign trademark applications draw attention.  

　Trademark registration applications rose by 8% to an historical high of 97,411 cases in 2025 (If measured by class count, applications totaled 124,242 classes, which represented a year-on-year increase of 10%.).  Such increase was mainly caused by domestic applications, which surged by 9% to a record-high of 75,573 cases, while foreign applications also climbed by 4% to 21,838 cases.  

　Observation of the filings from the top five foreign countries (regions) reveals that South Korea experienced a 25% growth as the most prolific country, surpassing the U.S. (+7%), China (+3%), Japan (+1%), but the filings from Hong Kong dipped by 13%.  

4.  Class 35 dominated domestic trademark filings, while Class 9 led among foreign filings.  

　Among the top 10 classes for domestic trademark registration applications, Class 35 (advertising, business management and retail/wholesale services) recorded the largest number of filings at 14,913 applications.  In terms of growth rate, the applications filed for Class 42 (scientific and technological services) marked the largest growth rate of 31.6%, followed by Class 41 (education and entertainment) at 24.0%, and Class 9 (computer and technology products) at 17.6%.  The figures reflect strong domestic investment in technology-related services and products, as well as entertainment and creative industries.  Among the top 10 classes, only Class 29 had a slight decline of 0.6%.  

　As to foreign applications, Class 9 saw the highest number with 4,063 filings.  Among the top 10 classes, Class 28 (toys, games, and playthings) registered the strongest growth rate at 16.6%, while other classes also experienced similar increases ranging from 1.8%~8.7%.  Only Class 30 (coffee, tea, and pastries) decreased by 4.3%.  

5.  Sustained optimization of patent and trademark examination timelines facilitate corporate IP portfolios.  

　TIPO has been devoted to enhancing patent and trademark examination efficiency, to cope with applicants’ needs across all stages from product R&D to commercialization and also to provide diverse expedited examination mechanism.  In 2025, the average first office action pendency for invention patent applications was 8.0 months, a decrease of 0.4 months from 2024.  Likewise, the average first office action pendency for trademark applications was reduced by 0.5 months to 5.6 months.  Such reduced pendency timeline helps enterprises acquire their rights earlier and further reinforce their industrial IP deployment.  (Released 2026.02.26)  
/CCS