GENEVA -- China has replaced Germany as the third biggest country in patent filing, according to the annual report released Thursday by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Statistics showed that the number of annual international patent applications in 2013 had reached a record high of 205,300, more than five percent higher than that in 2012.

"International patent, in general, is in a growth mood, which considerably in excess of either national or world GDP growth rate," said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.

Specifically, the United States witnessed the most applications which is more than 57,000 in 2013, with Japan, China and Germany in the following places.

This is the first time when China surpassed Germany to be the third largest country in patent filing. In 2013, China filed as many as 21,516 international patent applications, a dramatic increase of more than 15 percent over the previous year.

"China established its patent law 30 years ago," said Gurry. "Now it found more international patent applications than Germany, that's exceptional and not many countries are capable of doing that."

Japan and Germany filed 43,918 and 17,927 international patent applications respectively in 2013, according to WIPO.

Meanwhile, in terms of company filers, Japan's Panasonic registered the most applications, who filed 2,881 patents in 2013, data showed.

China's telecommunications companies ZTE and Huawei secured second and third places respectively, both filed more than 2,000 patents last year, according to the report.