U.S. Leads in International Patent Applications

March 12, 2007 -- The United States accounted for more than a third of total patent applications filed with the World International Patent Office in 2006, followed by Japan and Germany, a recent agency report shows.

Overall, a record 145,300 patent applications were filed with the organization last year, a 6.4 percent increase for the previous year, the report said.

Just over 30 percent of all international patent applications last year were in the telecommunications, pharmaceutical, and information technology sectors, the report said.

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