China leads rise in international patent filings

A burst of international patent applications from China, Korea and Japan boosted global filings to a record high last year, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said on Friday.

Chinese firms sought 44 percent more international patents in 2005 than the year before, in what WIPO Deputy Director General Francis Gurry described as a concerted push to protect the country's booming high-technology products abroad.

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