The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has published the 'Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Annual Report 2018'. The number of international patent applications filed in 2018 was 253,000, 3.9% more than the previous year. In the world ranking, the country with the most applications is the United States with 56,142 cases, in second place is China with 53,345, and in third place is Japan with 49,702. With regard to the percentage change from the previous year, whilst there was a 0.9 % decrease in applications from the U.S.A.There was a 9.1% increase in China, and a 3.1% increase in applications from Japan. India, meanwhile, saw a large increase of 27.2%.