milestone - americans seeking most international patents

Companies around the world have filed applications for 1 million international patents under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) since the system began in 1978, according to the U.N. agency for intellectual property. 

• The United States currently dominates the applications, filing 205,286 applications since 2000, said Samar Shamoon, spokeswoman for the World Intellectual Property Organization.
• Japan is in second place with 72,891, followed by Germany with 70,513, Britain 25,916 and France 24,278.