Design-patent activity reached an estimated 1.22 million applications worldwide in 2024, containing about 1.56 million individual designs. The figures show a market concentrated in Asia and at a small group of major intellectual-property offices, while cross-border filing and several product sectors continued to expand.
Contents
- Global filing scale and growth
- The leading filing offices
- Applicant origins and overseas protection
- Regional distribution and filing intensity
- Industries represented in design filings
- Registrations and active design rights
The terminology matters. WIPO reports industrial-design statistics, while “design patents” is the keyword used here. A design count measures the designs contained in applications, not simply the number of application records; this distinction matters because offices differ in whether one application can contain multiple designs. Percentages and totals below are reported or paraphrased from WIPO, with no derived figures added.
Global filing scale and growth
WIPO estimated 1.22 million design applications were filed worldwide in 2024, an increase of 2.6% from 2023. Those applications contained approximately 1.56 million designs, up 2.2% from the previous year. For comparison, applications contained about 1.52 million designs in 2023, when the count rose 2.8% from 2022. These are global annual totals, not counts of granted rights or active registrations.
The expansion was broad but not universal. About 60% of reporting intellectual-property offices recorded higher design-application filing volumes in 2024 than in 2023. Among the increases specifically reported by WIPO, India received 12,160 more design applications than in 2023, the United States received 8,199 more, and the EUIPO received 2,781 more.
The international component grew faster than resident activity. Designs in non-resident filings increased 12.5% worldwide in 2024, while designs in resident applications remained stable. The Hague System accounted for 35% of all non-resident designs filed worldwide in 2024 and provided design protection in 99 countries during that year. The Hague figure describes the share of non-resident designs associated with that international filing system; it is not a share of all global designs.
The leading filing offices
China was the dominant receiving office by a wide margin, with 825,330 designs in applications filed at its office in 2024. The EUIPO received 123,743 designs, followed by the United Kingdom with 78,567, the United States with 68,575, and the Republic of Korea with 60,683.
| Receiving office | Designs in applications, 2024 |
|---|---|
| China | 825,330 |
| EUIPO | 123,743 |
| United Kingdom | 78,567 |
| United States | 68,575 |
| Republic of Korea | 60,683 |
Together, the top 20 offices accounted for 93.8% of all designs in applications filed worldwide in 2024. That concentration means that office-level changes can materially shape the global picture, even when many smaller offices are also reporting growth.
Several of the fastest reported increases came from emerging or expanding filing markets. India’s design count at its office grew 43.2% in 2024. Brazil’s grew 27.3%, Indonesia’s 25.3%, and Morocco’s 23.4%. These are year-over-year changes in design counts at the respective offices, not measures of the success rate or commercial value of the designs.
For product designers and companies, the office distinction is practical: a receiving-office statistic describes where an application was filed, while an applicant-origin statistic describes where the applicant was based. The two views can differ when businesses protect the same design across borders.
Applicant origins and overseas protection
Applicants based in China filed applications containing 906,849 designs worldwide in 2024. Germany was the next largest origin in the supplied WIPO comparison, with 70,212 designs, followed by the United States with 66,855, Italy with 63,668, and the Republic of Korea with 60,109. The five largest origins together generated 74.9% of worldwide design-count activity in 2024.
| Applicant origin | Designs in applications worldwide, 2024 |
|---|---|
| China | 906,849 |
| Germany | 70,212 |
| United States | 66,855 |
| Italy | 63,668 |
| Republic of Korea | 60,109 |
China also led the supplied figures for designs filed abroad, with 103,615 designs in 2024. Applicants based in the United States filed 46,185 designs abroad. Worldwide, designs in applications filed abroad reached 308,800 in 2024, up 12.5% from 2023. “Filed abroad” refers to applicant-origin activity outside the applicants’ home country; it should not be read as a count of unique companies.
India provides a useful example of the difference between domestic and overseas activity. India’s total design count by applicant origin grew 44.9% in 2024. Domestic design filing by applicant origin increased 47.9%, while design filing abroad by applicant origin increased 16.5%. These rates describe different components of Indian applicant activity and should not be combined into a single total growth rate.
The international pattern is also visible through the Hague System. Its 35% share of non-resident designs indicates that a substantial portion of cross-border design protection used the system in 2024, while the system’s geographic reach covered 99 countries. The statistic does not mean that every country received the same volume or that every design received protection in all 99 countries.
Regional distribution and filing intensity
Asia accounted for 68.3% of all designs in applications filed worldwide in 2024. Europe accounted for 23.3%, and Northern America for 5.0%. Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania together accounted for the remaining 3.4%.
| Region | Share of designs in applications, 2024 |
|---|---|
| Asia | 68.3% |
| Europe | 23.3% |
| Northern America | 5.0% |
| Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania combined | 3.4% |
Longer-term growth rates add context to the 2024 distribution. From 2014 to 2024, Northern America’s average annual design-count growth was 6.7%. Latin America’s and the Caribbean’s average annual growth was 3.4%, and Asia’s was 3.3%. These are average annual growth measures for the 2014–2024 period, not 2024-only changes.
Filing intensity can look different from absolute volume when it is normalized by economic output. In 2024, China had 2,391 resident design counts per USD 100 billion of GDP, while Italy had 1,636 resident design counts per USD 100 billion of GDP. This measure concerns resident design counts and GDP normalization; it is not a ranking of total worldwide filings or a measure of design quality.
Industries represented in design filings
Design filings span both physical products and technology-linked categories. Furniture and household goods represented 16.7% of worldwide design filing in 2024, matching textiles and accessories at 16.7%. Tools and machines represented 11.3%, ICT and audiovisual represented 9.2%, and electricity and lighting represented 8.9%.
| Industry sector | Share of worldwide design filing, 2024 |
|---|---|
| Furniture and household goods | 16.7% |
| Textiles and accessories | 16.7% |
| Tools and machines | 11.3% |
| ICT and audiovisual | 9.2% |
| Electricity and lighting | 8.9% |
The five largest industry sectors together represented 62.8% of design classes recorded worldwide in 2024. WIPO’s wording distinguishes design classes from a simple count of application records. A single filing can contain multiple designs, and the classification view is therefore useful for understanding the kinds of products represented without treating every class as a separate applicant or application.
For product-design research, the sector split highlights why design protection statistics are relevant beyond traditional furniture or consumer goods. Tools, machines, ICT products, audiovisual products, electrical goods, and lighting all appear among the largest recorded categories. The figures identify filing concentration, but they do not establish demand, sales, profitability, or legal enforceability for any individual product.
Registrations and active design rights
Filing activity is only one stage of the design-right lifecycle. Offices worldwide registered roughly 971,900 design applications in 2024, up 2.7% from 2023. Those registrations contained about 1.27 million designs, an increase of 0.6% from 2023. China accounted for 51.1% of the designs contained in worldwide registrations, while the top 20 offices accounted for 94.5%.
The number of rights in force was much larger than the number registered during the year. An estimated 6.09 million design registrations were in force worldwide in 2024, up 0.2% from 2023. “In force” is a stock measure of active registrations at the measurement point, whereas applications and registrations during 2024 are flow measures for that year. The two should not be compared as if they were the same type of count.
China had 3.07 million active design registrations in 2024, although that total was down 4.9% from 2023. The United States had 448,554 active design registrations, the Republic of Korea had 414,402, the EUIPO had 363,418, and the United Kingdom had 363,083.
Office outcomes also varied. The EUIPO registered 98.5% of applications processed in 2024. The United States recorded a 28.0% design-application rejection rate among decisions in 2024. These figures use different outcome descriptions—registration among applications processed versus rejection among decisions—so they are not directly comparable as a single global approval ranking.
Together, the filing, registration, and active-rights measures describe three different views of design protection in 2024: new demand for protection, rights recorded by offices, and the accumulated stock of registrations still in force. For historical and comparative work, keeping those measures separate is essential.
Sources: World Intellectual Property Indicators 2025: Highlights — Designs highlights; IP Facts and Figures 2025 — Designs; World Intellectual Property Indicators 2024: Highlights — Designs Highlights.