North East Asia files record number of international patents
The number of patents filed by China has risen by 212 per cent since 2000, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). In a year that saw a record number of international patent filings, the Republic of Korea also moved up the list of the biggest users of the WIPO's Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), dislodging the Netherlands to move into sixth place, while China climbed to tenth position, overtaking Canada, Italy and Australia. The PCT enables inventors and industry to obtain patent protection internationally by filing one international patent application. 'The rate of growth from Japan, Republic of Korea and China continues to be exceptional, reflecting the rapidly expanding technological strength of those countries,' said WIPO Deputy Director General, Francis Gurry. 'Since 2000, the number of applications from Japan, Republic of Korea, and China, has risen by 162 per cent, 200 per cent and 212 per cent respectively.' The US continued to top the PCT user table, filing 33.6 per cent of all patents (an increase of 3.8 per cent during 2004), while Japan, which unseated Germany in 2003 to take the number two position, maintained its place with 18.8 per cent of the total applications (a 24.3 per cent increase). Japan is followed by Germany, France and then the UK. Other European countries in the top 15 are: the Netherlands (7th); Switzerland (8th); Sweden (9th); Italy (12th); and Finland (14th). European companies continued to do well, with the Dutch multinational Philips Electronics N.V. filing the largest number of applications (2,492). Japanese company Matsushita was the second largest filer, followed by Siemens (Germany), Nokia (Finland), Bosch (Germany), Intel (US), and BASF (Germany). Among the top 20 filing companies were seven from the US, four from Germany and four from Japan. Mr Gurry claims that while part of the increase can be attributed to better economic conditions, improved services and productivity within the PCT system also contributed to the increase in patents filed. Many of these improvements are due to the increased use of information technology, WIPO said.
Countries
China, Japan, South Korea