GENEVA - China's international patent filings under WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) surged by 56.2 percent in 2010, leading the global growth in international patent filings, which saw a 4.8-percent increase over the period, the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced at a press conference on Wednesday.

The growth rate from China was "astonishing," said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.

In 2010, China filed 12,337 patents under the PCT system, up from 7,900 cases registered in the previous year, overtaking the Republic of Korea (ROK) as the fourth-ranked PCT filing country worldwide.

Two Chinese companies, ZTE Corporation and Huawei Technologies Co., LTD., were ranked among the top ten applicants under the PCT system. With 1,863 patent filings, ZTE took the second place on the chart, rocketing from the 20th place in 2009, while Huawei ranked the fourth, down by 2 places comparing to the previous year.

Yet none of the Chinese universities has entered into the top patent-filing university ranking, which is dominated by universities from the United States and other developed economies.

The WIPO noted that Northeast Asia, in particular, was the most dynamic region in PCT filings. Apart from China, Japan (ranked second) and the ROK (ranked fifth) also scored high in patent filings.

The two Asian neighbors have seen 7.9 percent and 20.5 percent increases in new patent applications respectively.

In comparison, the United States, the top international patent applicant of the world, suffered a 1.7-percent decrease in PCT filing in 2010, the third year in a row to register negative performances since 2008.