International Patent Filings increased by nearly 5% in 2007, according to a recent report by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Perhaps not surprisingly, the top country for new applications continues to be the USA, from where over a third of all new applications under the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT) originated. But the countries with the biggest growth in patent filings in the PCT were the Republic of Korea, which is now in 4th place, and China, now 7th. The rest of the top ten are: Japan (2); Germany (3); France (5); the UK (6); Netherlands (8); Switzerland (9); and Sweden (10).
In the top ten PCT companies, there are two Japanese companies, including Matsushita Electric at No 1, two German companies, three US companies, one Dutch company, one Finnish company and, significantly, a Chinese company, at No 4 with 1365 applications published in 2007. There are no British companies in the top 50.
While a popular view is that patents are not taken seriously in some Far Eastern countries, the figures show that this is far from the truth.
In a survey published recently in the Economist magazine, Israel led the world in patent applications filed per $1bn of GDPI in 2007, with nearly eleven. The figure for the whole world was around three, with Britain doing rather worse than France and Australia with about two. While one might argue about the basis for these figures, it does suggest that some countries take patenting a lot more seriously than others.
We are happy to say that our clients continue to invent, and we continue to do our best to secure patent protection for them.
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