In a first, China knocks US from top spot in global patent race

[beijingwalker]

In a first, China knocks US from top spot in global patent race
07 Apr 2020 08:15PM

FILE PHOTO: The headquarter of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is pictured in Geneva, Switzerland March 3, 2020. Picture taken March 3, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

GENEVA: China was the biggest source of applications for international patents in the world last year, pushing the United States out of the top spot it has held since the global system was set up more than 40 years ago, the UN patent agency said on Tuesday (Apr 7).

The World Intellectual Property Organization, which oversees a system for countries to share recognition of patents, said 58,990 applications were filed from China last year, beating out the United States which filed 57,840.

China's figure was a 200-fold increase in just 20 years, it said. The United States had filed the most applications in the world every year since the Patent Cooperation Treaty system was set up in 1978.

More than half of patent applications - 52.4 per cent - now come from Asia, with Japan ranking third, followed by Germany and South Korea.

Ownership of patents is widely seen as an important sign of a country's economic strength and industrial know-how.

WIPO's head, Francis Gurry, told a news conference China's success was "down to a very deliberate strategy on the part of Chinese leadership to advance innovation and to make the country a country whose economy operates at a higher level of value.

"It is working, and intellectual property is certainly part of that strategy. I would put it down to that broad movement towards becoming a higher-value economy," he said.

According to the WIPO data, China's Huawei Technologies , the world's biggest maker of telecoms equipment, was the top corporate patent filer for the third consecutive year.

The United States has called on countries to ban Huawei equipment from new mobile phone networks, arguing that its technology could be used by China for spying. Huawei denies that its technology poses a security risk.

Asked to what extent China's lead was due to state subsidies, Gurry said: "It's a model which does use state subsidies to a greater extent perhaps than Western economies might typically use state subsidies. So yes it certainly plays role.

"But I think it is very interesting to compare the United States of America as one example of the high performing economy, that has been top of innovation for a long time, a completely different model than what is happening in China.

"The jury is still out ... perhaps both are successful."

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...-from-top-spot-in-global-patent-race-12618720

 

[TruthSeeker]

It will be interesting to see in the next decade whether Chinese patent holders try and succeed in enforcing their patents in a meaningful way. It will require Chinese patent holders to engage in patent enforcement litigation in, at least, the USA and Germany, as well as in China.

 

[ZeEa5KPul]

It will be interesting to see in the next decade whether Chinese patent holders try and succeed in enforcing their patents in a meaningful way. It will require Chinese patent holders to engage in patent enforcement litigation in, at least, the USA and Germany, as well as in China.

I fully expect the US to massively infringe on Chinese patents without any legal consequence in the US. The US is a country on its way down, might as well take the system along with it. Like Samson bringing the temple down around himself and his enemies.

 

[TruthSeeker]

I fully expect the US to massively infringe on Chinese patents without any legal consequence in the US. The US is a country on its way down, might as well take the system along with it. Like Samson bringing the temple down around himself and his enemies.

Yes, from many of your previous posts I could have expected you would immediately jump to your stated anti-American conclusion. USA companies would have to infringe on Chinese patents with impunity for the next twenty years to even come close to "evening the score." What goes around comes around.....

 

[beijingwalker]

China becomes world's top patent filer: UN
07 Apr 2020 09:37PM

'Innovation is not a zero-sum game'. (Photo: AFP/Fabrice Coffrini)

GENEVA: China last year became the world leader in international patent filings, unseating the United States which had held the top spot for more than four decades, the UN said on Tuesday (Apr 7).

A record 265,800 international patent applications were filed last year, a hike of 5.2-per cent from 2018, the World Intellectual Property Organisation said in its annual report.


WIPO's complex system of registering international patents involves multiple categories.

In the main category - the Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT - China topped the ranking for the first time, with 58,990 applications.

It thus overtook the United States, which filed 57,840 applications, and which has topped the PCT ranking since the system took effect in 1978.

China and the United States were followed by Japan, Germany and South Korea as the world's top patent application filers, WIPO found.

"China's rapid growth to become the top filer of international patent applications via WIPO underlines a long-term shift in the locus of innovation towards the East, with Asia-based applicants now accounting for more than half of all PCT applications," WIPO Director General Francis Gurry said in a statement.

WIPO's report showed Asian-based applicants accounting for 52.4 per cent of all filings, while Europe and North America accounted for less than a quarter each.

HUAWEI TOP FILER

And for the third consecutive year, China-based telecoms giant Huawei Technologies topped the global ranking in 2019 with 4,411 PCT applications.

Huawei helped China gain the patent top spot. (Photo: AFP/Fred Dufour)

This came despite a relentless campaign by Washington, which has lobbied allies worldwide to avoid the company's telecoms gear over security concerns, in the shadow of a wider US-China trade conflict.

It was followed by Misubishi Electric Corp of Japan, which made 2,661 filings, Samsung Electronics of South Korea with 2,334 filings and Qualcomm Inc of the United States with 2,127 filings.

Gurry, who is due to step down at the end of September after 12 years at the WIPO helm, said that back in 1999 the organisation had received just 276 patent applications from China.

Last year's nearly 59,000 filings marked a "200-fold increase in only 20 years", he said.

While intellectual property increasingly finds itself at the heart of global competition, Gurry said that "it is important to remember that innovation is not a zero-sum game".

"A net increase in global innovation means new drugs, communications technologies, solutions for global challenges that benefit everyone, wherever they live," he said.

"I am pleased that WIPO's IP services are successfully helping foster innovation and spread it worldwide." said Gurry.

FEARS OVER PANDEMIC IMPACT

Gurry is all but sure to be replaced by the current head of Singapore's national patent agency Daren Tang, who last month won a hotly-contested and at-times politicised race against five other candidates, including Chinese national Wang Binying, who has served as deputy chief of the UN agency for a decade.

The Mar 4 vote by WIPO's coordination committee still needs to be confirmed during the agency's full general assembly, which is usually held in May and is traditionally a formality. It remains unclear if it will be able to go ahead as planned amid the COVID-19 pandemic.


Gurry told a virtual press conference that it was uncertain how the new coronavirus, which first emerged in China late last year and which has now infected some 1.3 million people and killed more than 70,000 worldwide, will impact international patent filings going forward.

"We don't yet know how deep and how long this crisis is going to be, but it's going to be extremely significant across all of the creative industries," he warned.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/china-becomes-world-s-top-patent-filer--un-12618716

 

[Neutron]

This competition is good sign with pure scientific and technological point of view. All great scientific and technological discoveries are infact the outcome of great competitions and rivalries.

 

[Haris Ali2140]

This competition is good sign with pure scientific and technological point of view. All great scientific and technological discoveries are infact the outcome of great competitions and rivalries.

Space wars and Space Mining!!!!

 

[tower9]

Unless China actually comes up with the innovations that will revolutionize the world, being a top holder of patents mean nothing. Japan has been a huge holder of global patents every year but has produced little in terms of innovative technology in the past 20 years.

 

[beijingwalker]

Unless China actually comes up with the innovations that will revolutionize the world, being a top holder of patents mean nothing. Japan has been a huge holder of global patents every year but has produced little in terms of innovative technology in the past 20 years.

What China can do the best is to change new technologies home and abroad into products and mass produce them

 

[dbc]

What China can do the best is to change new technologies home and abroad into products and mass produce them

I wonder why China pays more patent royalties than any other country in the world? Oddly the Netherlands and Ireland followed by the US is the biggest recipients of patent royalties? I guess many US companies are leveraging tax havens in the Netherlands and Ireland. Damn Capitalists!!

@beijingwalker put down that little red book and take that red pill!