In 2024, China filed nearly 50% of patents, the United States 16%, and Europe 5.4%.

Omissions

• The claim does not specify that these figures refer to patent applications by receiving office (where the application is filed), not by origin of the applicant. The Chinese patent office (CNIPA) dominates because many foreign applicants also file in China.
• The MEP does not clarify what 'Europe' represents — likely the European Patent Office (EPO), which covers 39 contracting states, not the EU alone.
• The data presented are patent applications (filings), not patents granted (approved). Grant rates vary significantly by office, so filing shares do not directly represent innovation output.
• The MEP did not cite a source; the most authoritative source (WIPO World Intellectual Property Indicators 2025) confirms only the China figure at 48.2%. US and Europe figures could not be matched to exact WIPO data points in this search.
• The WIPO 2025 report was published on 2025-11-06, after the session date of 2026-05-19, but it covers 2024 data which the MEP could have accessed through preliminary releases or earlier WIPO publications.

Sources

• PrimaryWIPO World Intellectual Property Indicators 2025China: 1,795,715 patent applications in 2024, representing 48.2% of the world total (3,725,000 applications worldwide). Growth rate of 9.3% over 2023.
• PrimaryWIPO World Intellectual Property Indicators 2025 – Patents HighlightsIn 2024, innovators around the world filed 3.7 million patent applications, marking a 4.9% increase over 2023. Four of the top five offices – China (+9%), Japan (+2.2%), the Republic of Korea (+1.2%) and the United States (+0.8%) – reported growth.
• PrimaryEPO Patent Index 2024Filings from European applicants achieved a share of 43.3% of total EPO filings in 2024. This is the share within EPO, not the global share of EPO filings relative to all offices worldwide.