Press TV - The United Nations has named Iran as a country that had the fastest growth in industrial design counts worldwide in 2016.

According to an announcement by the UN Office in Tehran, the Islamic Republic marked the fastest growth in industrial design counts worldwide with a 34.8 percent increase.

Tracking behind Iran were Ukraine, China and the US that respectively had growth rates of 17.4 percent, 14.3 percent and 12.1 percent in their industrial design counts.

The statement added that the global industrial design filing activity in 2016 grew by 10.4 percent to an estimated 963,100 applications containing 1.2 million designs.

Design counts worldwide grew by 8.3 percent, driven primarily by strong growth in China, the statement added quoting figures provided by the UN intellectual property agency - the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

China received applications containing 650,344 designs in 2016, corresponding to 52 percent of the world total, followed by the European Union (EU) at 104,522, the Republic of Korea at 69,120, Germany at 56,188 and Turkey at 46,305.

"The latest figures charting a rise in demand for intellectual property rights confirm a decade-long trend, where developments in China increasingly leave their mark on the worldwide totals," said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. "China is increasingly amongst the leaders in global innovation and branding," Gurry emphasized�at the press launch of the World Intellectual Property Indicators report, as reported by the WIPO.

The WIPO is the global forum for intellectual property policy, services, information and cooperation. A specialized agency of the United Nations, WIPO assists its 191 member states in developing a balanced international intellectual property legal framework to meet society's evolving needs. It provides business services for obtaining intellectual property rights in multiple countries and resolving disputes.