MUMBAI: Asia-based innovators filed over 50% of all
international patent applications for the first time in 2018. The development came on the back of significant growth from India, China and Republic of Korea (South Korea), according to data from the
global intellectual property (
IP) services of the
World Intellectual Property Organization (
WIPO).
India filed a total of 2,013 international
patent applications, registering the highest growth of 27% among the top 15 countries.
India and China are the only two middle-income countries among the top 15 origins of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications. Though India showed huge growth, its share in global filings was a minuscule 0.8%, while China was ranked second with a huge 21% share.
Top patent filers from India are led by Chennai-based TVS Motor Company. Institutions like Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and Indian Institute of Technology are ranked second and third, followed by Reliance Industries, and educational institution Indian Institute of Science. But the list is dominated by pharmaceutical companies including Dr Reddy’s, Cipla, Lupin and Sun Pharma. Mylan, Hetero, MSN Labs and Wockhardt are the other pharma companies that made it to the list of top filers.
Overall, WIPO’s PCT passed a record-breaking quarter million (253,000) filings in 2018 — a nearly 4% increase. USbased applicants filed 56,142 PCT applications, followed by China (53,345) and Japan (49,702). Germany and South Korea ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, with 19,883 and 17,014 filings. Over half of all PCT applications came from Asia (50.5%), with Europe (24.5%) and North America (23%) accounting for about a quarter each.
“Asia is now the majority filer of international patent applications, which is an important milestone for that economically dynamic region and underscores the historical geographical shift of innovative activity from West to East,” said WIPO director general Francis Gurry.
Among fields of technology, digital communication (8.6%) overtook computer technology (8%) with the largest share of published PCT applications, followed by electrical machinery (7%), medical technology (6.7%) and transport (4.6%). Among the top 10 technologies, transport (11%), digital communication (10%) and semiconductors (9.8%) showed the highest rates of growth during the year.
Globally, the top 10 applicant list comprises six companies from Asia, two each from Europe and the US. China-based telecom giant Huawei Technologies, with a record number of 5,405 PCT applications, was the top corporate filer in 2018. Japan-based Mitsubishi Electric ranked second (2,812 filings), followed by Intel (2,499) and Qualcomm (2,404), both from US, and ZTE of China (2,080).
Among educational institutions, University of California was the largest user of the PCT system with 501 applications, extending a leading position it has held since 1993. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (216) ranked second, followed by Shenzhen University (201), South China University of Technology (170) and Harvard University (169).