Design Patents Did It: How China Passed Japan in US Patent Grants

Patent – Patently-O 2026-08-26

by Dennis Crouch

China now receives more US patents than Japan. The crossover happened in 2024, and the projection for 2026 puts China around 58k compared with Japan's 45k. But, this total does hide a big exception. Japan is still ahead on utility patents -- with China shooting ahead with a large bolus of design patents. The charts in these posts count patents where at least one of the inventor is listed as residing in the given country.

Line chart of all granted US patents by country of origin, China versus Japan, 1979 to 2026, showing China passing Japan in 2024

Line chart of granted US utility patents, China versus Japan, 1979 to 2026, showing Japan still ahead of China

I grew up in the 1980s hearing that Japan was buying America, and the patent numbers were part of that story. Japanese inventors obtained a bit more than 20% of all US patents through the early 1990s and held near that level for another fifteen years. Today Japan's share is about 12%. The collapse in share is much more about other countries increasing their filings than Japan dropping their numbers.

Line chart of share of all granted US patents, China versus Japan, 1979 to 2026, showing Japan's share falling from above 21 percent to about 12 percent

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