Patent filings from Switzerland to patent offices worldwide increased to 24,861 in 2006, according to the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization.

The Geneva-based United Nations specialised agency said that the country's share of the worldwide patent cake had increased from 1.2 per cent in 2000 to 1.4 per cent in 2006.

The report puts Switzerland tenth overall and 17th when it comes to patent filings compared with gross domestic product - one of the measures of national income and output for a given country's economy.

Worldwide patent activity increased by 4.9 per cent between 2005 and 2006, mostly due to increased filings by applicants from China, South Korea and the United States.

The total number of applications filed across the world in 2006 is estimated to be 1.76 million, representing a 4.9 per cent increase compared with 2005.

The report says the most dynamic country is China. It accounted for 76 per cent of total patent filings in 2006. Chinese residents increased their share of total worldwide patent filings from 1.8 per cent to 7.3 per cent between 2000 and 2006, mostly due to increases in domestic patent filings.

In 2006 the total number of patents in force across the world is estimated to be about 6.1 million.

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