Four Chinese universities won spots in the top 10 patent applicants globally, following the United States, which stayed at the top with the University of California filing the most applications in 2019, according to a report by the World Intellectual Property Organization.

WIPO released its yearly review on Tuesday in Geneva, and in the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the main category of its system of registering international patents, China's Tsinghua University ranked second with 265 applications filed in 2019, following the University of California, which maintained its top rank with 470 published applications.

Among educational institutions, the top 10-university list comprised five universities from the US, four from China and one from the Republic of Korea. China's Shenzhen University won third place, with 247 applications, and South China University of Technology, in fifth, filed 164 applications.

Dalian University of Technology ranked seventh with 141 patent applications, up nearly three times from the previous year.

According to the report, a record of 265,800 international patent applications were filed last year, up 5.2 percent over 2018.

"IP (intellectual property) is increasingly at the heart of global competition. Nevertheless, it is important to remember that innovation is not a zero-sum game — that a net increase in global innovation means new drugs, communications technologies, solutions for global challenges that benefit everyone, wherever they live," said Francis Gurry, WIPO director-general.

Let's see the top 10 patent applicants by universities.