PCT Newsletter
June 2026 | No. 06/2026
PCT Yearly Review 2026 now available
Report offers rich data on PCT filings, national phase entry and PCT System performance
WIPO has published the PCT Yearly Review 2026, the latest edition of its annual in-depth statistical analysis of patenting activity through the PCT system.
The Review expands on the 2025 PCT filings data that were reported in the March issue of the PCT Newsletter. In addition to 30 figures and tables analyzing international applications, it also includes information about national phase entries in 2024 (the latest year for which data are available).
Detailed filing data show that women accounted for 18.1% of all inventors named in PCT applications in 2025. However, the share of women inventors has risen steadily over the past 15 years, increasing by 6.7 percentage points in total since 2011.
The report also reveals that PCT national phase entries fell by 3.7% in 2024 – the second consecutive year of decline. PCT national phase entries accounted for 53.3% of non-resident patent applications filed worldwide.
Almost all PCT applications (99.4%) in 2025 were filed electronically, with 44.5% being filed through the ePCT service. The International Bureau (IB) performed the PCT-required formalities examination for 81.3% of PCT applications within one week of receipt and for 95.6% within two weeks, while receiving Offices took 2.7 weeks on average to transmit a PCT application to the IB. Both these metrics reflect significant improvements in Office performance since the baseline reporting year of 2011.
The English-language version of PCT Yearly Review 2026 is available to download free of charge, and you can also download the underlying data. An Executive Summary will be published soon in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish.
| 1 | China | 73,718 | 26.7% |
| 2 | United States of America | 52,617 | 19.1% |
| 3 | Japan | 47,922 | 17.4% |
| 4 | Republic of Korea | 25,016 | 9.1% |
| 5 | Germany | 16,441 | 6.0% |
| 6 | France | 7,778 | 2.8% |
| 7 | United Kingdom | 5,809 | 2.1% |
| 8 | Switzerland | 5,012 | 1.8% |
| 9 | Netherlands (Kingdom of the) | 4,239 | 1.5% |
| 10 | Sweden | 3,857 | 1.4% |
| 1 | Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd (CN) | 7,523 |
| 2 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd (KR) | 4,968 |
| 3 | Qualcomm Incorporated (US) | 3,227 |
| 4 | LG Electronics Inc. (KR) | 2,400 |
| 5 | Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CN) | 2,203 |
| 6 | Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd (JP) | 2,094 |
| 7 | LG Energy Solution, Ltd (KR) | 1,958 |
| 8 | BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd (CN) | 1,946 |
| 9 | Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co., Ltd (CN) | 1,921 |
| 10 | Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (JP) | 1,835 |
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