WIPO reports that China’s ZTE Corporation has overtaken Huawei Technologies as the largest filer of PCT applications in 2016.  US company Qualcomm Inc. takes the bronze as the third largest patent filer through the PCT system.  US companies are still the largest users of the PCT system, filing 24.3% of the 233,000 PCT applications filed in 2016, followed by companies from Japan (19.4%) and China (18.5%).  Based on relative rates of growth, WIPO estimates that China could overtake the US as the largest filer of PCT applications within two years.

PCT applications filed by Canadian companies fell a troubling 17.3% in 2016 compared to 2015, which WIPO attributes to declining patent application filings by former tech heavyweights Research in Motion/Blackberry and Nortel.

WIPO’s press release is available here.