Global Trademark Signals · Data Note 01

The U.S. rebounded. Its panel share stayed lower.

A focused look at the denominator behind the flagship report’s headline: the U.S. recovered in 2024 without returning to its 2020 share of this selected office panel.

21 September 2026WIPO 2020–2024Application class counts

53.6%U.S. share of the selected panel in 2020

43.8%U.S. share in 2024

−10.9%U.S. reported class-count change from 2020 to 2024

The signal

Chinese-origin counts at the U.S. office rose from 180,483 in 2020 to 185,102 in 2021, fell to 117,487 in 2022, were nearly unchanged in 2023 and rebounded to 160,792 in 2024. The recovery is real in this series. It did not restore the 2021 peak.

The U.S. share of 15 selected offices falls from 53.6% in 2020 to 43.8% in 2024. Excluding the UK, it falls from 56.6% to 49.0%. — **Figure 1 · Chart of Record.** The share is calculated within a fixed 15-office panel. Excluding the UK reduces the change but leaves the direction intact: 56.6% to 49.0%.

Why the denominator matters

The 43.8% value does not mean that 43.8% of every Chinese overseas filing went to the U.S. It means that the U.S. contributed that share of reported application-class counts in the specified panel and years. The same applicant can appear in several offices, and this aggregate cannot identify whether portfolios were substituted, expanded or filed by different groups.

The combined panel increased from 336,813 reported class counts in 2020 to 367,069 in 2024. The non-U.S. portion increased from 156,330 to 206,277. The narrow conclusion is that, within this fixed set of office channels, activity was less U.S.-concentrated in 2024 than in 2020.

Sensitivity, not certainty

The direction survives removing the UK, removing the UK plus overlapping German and French national-office channels, and using the nine offices with complete class-year cells. These checks show the result is not solely an artefact of one obvious panel choice. They do not convert the panel into a complete global denominator.

What this does not prove

It does not show that Chinese applicants abandoned the U.S.
It does not measure unique marks, companies, sales, exports or market share.
It does not identify the cause of the 2022 drop or 2024 rebound.

Cite this research

Suggested citation for articles, briefings and chart reuse:

Lin, Peter. “Beyond the U.S. Rebound: The Changing Map of Chinese Trademark Filings.” Trademarkora Global Trademark Signals, Data Note 01, 21 September 2026. WIPO Statistics Database, May 2026 data vintage.

Permanent canonical URL: https://www.trademarkora.com/research/insights/china-us-trademark-destination-share/

Key citation facts
Metric	Value	Period / scope
U.S. selected-panel share	53.6% → 43.8%	2020–2024
Mexico reported class counts	+157.4%	2020–2024
Class 3 share breadth	15/15 offices	2021–2024

Trademarkora-created charts may be reused with attribution and a link back to this report, subject to the underlying WIPO source terms. The downloadable file contains derived aggregates only, not the raw WIPO export.

Related: read Issue 01 for the office-growth, UK and product-mix context.