China tops in home appliance patent applications, according to a report released recently by the Forward Industry Research Institute, a Chinese research specialist. As the world's largest source of home appliances technology, China's home appliance patent applications accounted for 67.34%, followed by Japan with 7.61%, said the report. The United States and South Korea ranked third and fourth, accounting for 6.68 percent and 6.14 percent respectively. The report also pointed out that the gap between china and other countries gradually widened since 2012, when China saw a significant surge of home appliance patent applications. In 2021, home appliance patent applications in China reached 44500.