Unexpected Patent Filing World Wide in the year 2017 – 2018
85% of the world’s total Patent Filing was accounted in top 5(five) patent offices which received an approximate 3.17 million patents for the year 2017 – 2018. A considerable share (43.6%) was filed in China alone, primarily by Chinese residents. The next largest shares went to the offices of the U.S., Japan, the Republic of Korea and the European Patent Office (EPO). China’s office received a record total of 1.38 million patent applications in 2017, more than double the number of applications received by that of the U.S. (606,956). The office of Japan ranked third with 318,479 applications, followed by the office of the Republic of Korea (204,775) and the EPO (166,585). Among the top 10 offices, those of India (+3.4%) and the EPO (+4.5%) saw strong growth in filings.
While talking about growth in the filing it is necessary to showcase the increment in the filing at the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization and African Intellectual Property Organization. Applications filed at the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization
(ARIPO) grew by 7.2%, while the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) received 2.6% more applications in 2017 - 2018 than in 2016. Among the offices of selected middle-income countries, Ecuador (+11.5%), Romania (+10.8%) and Colombia (+7.7%) recorded particularly high growth in the financial year.
It is pertinent to know that differences in patent activity reflects both the size of each economy and its level of development. However, by weighing the number of applications per country relative to its GDP, it is possible to compare filing activity among countries with economies of very different sizes for an alternative measure. While China leads the world in the total number of patent applications filed by its residents, on this alternative measure the Republic of Korea outperforms all other countries – its ratio of filing to a unit of GDP is considerably higher than those of the two next highest ranked, China and Japan.
Taking about filing it is necessary to address the field in which the top five patent filing countries have focused on with respect to innovation. Analysing patents by technology, applicants from China and the Republic of Korea filed most intensively in the fields of electrical machinery and computer technology, Germany in transport, Japan in electrical machinery, and the U.S. in computer technology.
Talking about International Patent Filing, The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) System simplifies the process of multiple national patent filings by reducing the requirement to file a separate application in each jurisdiction where protection is sought. Around 243,500 PCT applications were filed in 2017, up 4.5% on 2016, representing an eighth consecutive year of growth. China, with 48,900 PCT applications, became the second largest source of PCT applications, closing in on the long-term leader – the U.S. (56,680). Close behind was Japan (48,206), ranked third.
The renowned company which has led these countries to the top comprises of Huawei Technologies (4,024 published PCT applications) and ZTE Corporation (2,965), two of Shenzhen, China-based telecoms companies, occupy the top spots. They were followed by Intel Corporation of the U.S. (2,637), Mitsubishi Electric Corporation of Japan (2,521) and Qualcomm Incorporated of the U.S. (2,163). Among the top 10 applicants, six filed mainly in digital communications. From the data, it is quite clear that in the coming year we are sure to see many innovative products in the field of communication, automobiles which is going to change the face of our generation with respect to the utilization of technology.
