WIPO’s World Intellectual Property Indicators 2025 (WIPI 2025), published in November 2025, provides a global snapshot of patent, trademark, design, GI, and plant variety activity using 2024 data.
India at a Glance: WIPI 2025
| IP Category | India 2024 Figure | Global Context |
| Patents (by origin, worldwide) | 19.1% growth in 2024. Sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth. 6th globally. | Global total: 3.7 million applications, up 4.9%. India the fastest-growing top-20 origin. |
| Resident share of filings | 60.1% in 2024, up from 28.1% in 2014. Largest decade-long shift among all IP offices. | Only India and Italy saw resident growth compensate for a decline in non-resident filing to produce positive overall growth. |
| Designs (by origin) | +44.9% in design count in 2024. Highest growth among all top 10 origins. | India led global design activity growth, receiving 12,160 additional applications vs 2023 — more than any other office. |
| Trademarks (by office) | 555,613 class counts in 2024. 5th globally. +94.5% in registrations in force. | Global trademark filings flat overall at 15.2 million classes. India growth driven entirely by resident demand. |
| Patent-to-GDP ratio | 16th among top 20 countries. | China 1st (4,977 per USD 100 billion GDP). India’s ratio has risen from 144 in 2013 to 381 in 2023. |
| GIs globally | India continues to register and protect GIs under the GI Act, 1999. | 62,300 protected GIs worldwide in 2024. India among major contributors by volume of active GI registrations. |
A. Patents
India-based applicants filed patent applications worldwide at a growth rate of 19.1% in 2024, the fastest among the top 20 origins. This marks the sixth consecutive year of double-digit growth and continues a trajectory that no other top-20 origin has matched over the past decade. India is the only origin among the top 20 to have recorded year-on-year growth in patent filings every year over the last decade.
| 19.1% | Growth in worldwide patent filings by India-based applicants in 2024. Fastest among all top 20 origins. WIPO IP Facts and Figures 2025; WIPI 2025 Patents Highlights |
| 6th | India’s global rank by patent applications in 2024, behind China, the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Germany. WIPO WIPI 2025 |
At the office level, India received 63,217 resident applications and 41,940 non-resident applications in 2024. The most significant structural trend is the resident share, which rose from 28.1% in 2014 to 60.1% in 2024. WIPO describes this as the largest shift in resident and non-resident filing distribution over the past decade among all IP offices. This shift indicates that patenting in India is increasingly driven by domestic innovators rather than foreign applicants seeking Indian coverage.
India is the only origin among the top 20 to report growth in patent filings every year over the last decade. The resident share rising from 28% to 60% in ten years is not a filing trend. It is a structural indicator of an innovation economy that is maturing from within.
B. Industrial Designs
India’s performance in industrial designs in 2024 is among the most striking data points in WIPI 2025. Design applications filed by India-based applicants grew by 44.9%, the highest growth rate among all top 10 origins. At the office level, India received 12,160 more design applications in 2024 than in 2023, the largest absolute increase of any office in the world, ahead of the US and EUIPO.
| +44.9% | Growth in design count by origin for India in 2024. The highest among all top 10 origins and well above the global average of 2.2%. WIPO WIPI 2025 Designs Highlights |
Among the top 20 offices, India also recorded a 43.2% increase in design applications received, one of five offices to record double-digit growth, alongside Brazil, Indonesia, Morocco, and the US. At the registration level, India registered 27.9% growth in active design registrations, the strongest among the top 20.
This suggests that India’s manufacturing and consumer goods sectors are increasingly using design registration as a commercial tool, reflecting both the growth of product-focused businesses and the impact of reduced filing fees under the 2024 GI Amendment Rules and related IP policy reforms.
C. Trademarks
India ranked 5th globally for trademark filing in 2024, with 555,613 class counts. The Russian Federation (567,227), India (555,613), and Brazil (468,667) together with China and the US formed the top five offices, which collectively accounted for 61.5% of all global trademark filing by application class count.
India’s trademark registrations in force reached 3 million in 2024, placing it third globally after China (49.8 million) and the United States (3.6 million). India’s office also recorded a 94.5% increase in registrations in force, the largest increase among the top 20 offices, attributed significantly to expanded staffing for application processing. India’s trademark growth was driven entirely by resident demand, with resident filing compensating for a decline in non-resident activity to produce positive overall growth.
D. Geographical Indications
WIPO estimated 62,300 protected geographical indications worldwide in 2024. India, operating its GI framework under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, continues to be among the major contributors to global GI volume. India’s GI portfolio covers agricultural products, handicrafts, handloom textiles, food products, and other goods tied to specific regional origins.
The WIPI 2025 report does not separately disaggregate India’s GI count, but India’s active GI registration programme, accelerated by the GI Amendment Rules 2025 which reduced filing fees significantly, positions the country as a growing contributor to global GI protection activity.
E. Patent-to-GDP: Where India Stands and Where It Is Heading
India ranks 16th among the top 20 countries when resident patent applications are measured relative to GDP. WIPO records that India does not appear in the top 20 for patents per capita.
The absolute ranking, however, does not tell the full story. India’s patent-to-GDP ratio rose from 144 in 2013 to 381 in 2023, one of the most significant increases of any economy in that period. The increase is attributed to resident filings growing at a faster rate than GDP. This trajectory is the more important indicator for understanding where India is in its innovation cycle: the ratio is improving rapidly and from a structural base that is expanding.
China, which currently leads all major economies on the patent-to-GDP measure at 4,977 applications per USD 100 billion of GDP, recorded a similar improvement in its patent-to-GDP ratio during its earlier expansion phase. The current trajectory for India is consistent with a domestic innovation economy in the process of scaling.
What the Data Means
The WIPI 2025 figures, taken together, tell a consistent story about India’s position in the global IP landscape. The growth is broad-based: patents, designs, and trademarks are all expanding. The direction of the structural shift in patent filings, resident share rising from 28% to 60% in a decade, reflects an economy in which domestic innovators are increasingly formalising and protecting what they create.
Three specific features of India’s WIPI 2025 performance are worth noting for business and policy audiences. First, India is the only top-20 origin to have grown in patent filings every year over the last decade, a consistency that distinguishes it from economies that have seen growth driven by a single spike. Second, India’s design filing growth of 44.9% is the highest in the world among major origins, which suggests that IP strategy in India is broadening beyond patents and trademarks into product design protection. Third, the trademark registrations-in-force increase of 94.5% reflects not only filing activity but also administrative expansion in the processing pipeline, which has historically been a bottleneck.
For Indian innovators and businesses, the report confirms that the domestic IP ecosystem is scaling. For international businesses with India operations or supply chains, the data reinforces the importance of India-specific IP strategy, both for protecting rights and for navigating a rapidly expanding competitive landscape.
Key References
WIPO World Intellectual Property Indicators 2025 (WIPI 2025) | WIPO IP Facts and Figures 2025 | Published November 2025 | Data based on 2024 filing and registration statistics from national and regional IP offices
