WIPO World Intellectual Property Organization [to 19 December 2015]
http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/

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Global Patent Filings Rise in 2014 for Fifth Straight Year; China Driving Growth
Innovators filed some 2.7 million patent applications to mark another worldwide annual rise in 2014, as application activity in China outstripped the combined total in its next-closest followers, the United States and Japan.
Dec 14, 2015 PR/2015/786