Patents in Force for 2004 by Office

Accroding to the World Intellectual Property Organization, there were a total of 5.4 million patents in force worldwide in 2004. Of this total, 81% are accounted for by six offices: the United States of America, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Republic of Korea and France. However, information on patents in force is not available for several offices that have relatively high numbers of patent applications, notably Argentina, Brazil, China, India and some European offices.