PatSeer - Worldwide Innovation Filing Trends 1995-2015

WORLDWIDE INNOVATION FILING
TRENDS 1995-2015
This report contains analysis of patent applications filed worldwide over the last 20 years
Analysis of patent filing activity holds importance for measuring innovation, research and technological development
across industries and countries. Government agencies, policy-makers and thought-bodies in developed and
developing economies have traditionally relied on sector specific patent filing trends to formulate key policy decisions.
This report covers patent filing trends across a selected set of countries or authorities and goes a level deeper to
analyze key technology sectors and characteristics of the applicant within each.

WORLDWIDE INNOVATION FILING
TRENDS 1995-2015

Worldwide Innovation Filing Trends 1995-2015
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the preparation of this report, the authors and Gridlogics Technologies Pvt Ltd assume no responsibility or
liability for errors or omissions, or for any incidental or consequential damages resulting from the use of
information contained herein.
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CONTENTS
OVERVIEW.............................................................................................................................................................1
WORLDWIDE TRENDS (ALL AUTHORITIES) .............................................................................................................2
PATENT APPLICATION FILING TRENDS.................................................................................................................................2
GROWTH OF FILINGS ACROSS PATENT OFFICES.....................................................................................................................3
WORLDWIDE TECHNOLOGY DOMAIN DISTRIBUTION .............................................................................................................5
FILINGS BY COUNTRY: UNITED STATES...................................................................................................................8
TOP APPLICANTS............................................................................................................................................................8
TOP RESIDENT APPLICANTS ..............................................................................................................................................9
TOP FOREIGN APPLICANTS .............................................................................................................................................11
DOMAIN-WISE DISTRIBUTION.........................................................................................................................................12
US RECORD TYPE AND TERM EXTENSION INFORMATION......................................................................................................16
ORGANIZATION-WISE DISTRIBUTION ................................................................................................................................18
TOP FIVE FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES.....................................................................................................................................19
FILINGS BY COUNTRY: CHINA...............................................................................................................................20
TOP APPLICANTS..........................................................................................................................................................20
TOP RESIDENT APPLICANTS ............................................................................................................................................21
ORGANISATION-WISE DISTRIBUTION ................................................................................................................................28
TOP TEN INSTITUTES.....................................................................................................................................................29
FILINGS BY COUNTRY: FRANCE ............................................................................................................................30
TOP APPLICANTS..........................................................................................................................................................30
TOP TEN UNIVERSITIES..................................................................................................................................................39
FILINGS BY COUNTRY: GREAT BRITAIN.................................................................................................................40
TOP APPLICANTS..........................................................................................................................................................40
FILINGS BY COUNTRY: GERMANY ........................................................................................................................50
TOP APPLICANTS..........................................................................................................................................................50

TOP TEN FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES .....................................................................................................................................59
FILINGS BY COUNTRY: INDIA................................................................................................................................60
TOP APPLICANTS..........................................................................................................................................................60
FILINGS BY COUNTRY: JAPAN...............................................................................................................................71
TOP APPLICANTS..........................................................................................................................................................71
FILINGS BY AUTHORITY: EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE ...........................................................................................78
TOP APPLICANTS AND APPLICATION TREND.......................................................................................................................78
FILINGS BY AUTHORITY: WIPO.............................................................................................................................89
TOP APPLICANTS & APPLICATION TREND ..........................................................................................................................89
TOP 10 COUNTRIES ......................................................................................................................................................91

©2015 Gridlogics Technologies | www.gridlogics.com 1
OVERVIEW
Analyzing patent filing trends provides key insights on technology and business competence across
industries and sectors. They have the potential to affect important decisions relating to R&D and
business strategies of firms, institutes or government organizations. As companies are increasingly
pursuing patent protection of their innovations overseas their filing patterns follow the countries that
they consider as important markets for their inventions.
Analysis of domestic patenting activity helps give a picture of the research and technological
development being done in a country while an increase in foreign applicant filings in a particular domain
can indicate the existence of a large market for the technology.
In this report we have analyzed worldwide patent filings across different patenting authorities. We have
considered all published patent applications up to June 2015 in the report. For various charts and
graphs, all filing data till mid-2013 can be considered as complete since recent filing data is usually not
available for some countries and there is always a time lag ranging from 12-24 months until a patent
application gets published.
We can see that the emerging economies are highly competitive in their own backyards and companies
from them are increasingly filing globally. Further electrical engineering and computer technology are
the most preferred areas for patent protection.
All search and analysis including all charts in this report have been generated using PatSeer without the
use of any other external tools.

WORLDWIDE TRENDS (ALL AUTHORITIES)
Patent Application Filing Trends
The chart below shows the total number of new patent applications filed annually across 102+ patent
offices in the last 20 years.
There is substantial rise in the number of new applications filed in the last three years. The number of
patent applications filed in 2013-2014 totaled 4.4 million. This represents roughly 6.2% rise in the
applications filed in the previous period between 2011-2012. The long term trends shows continuous
growth in the number of applications filed, with the exception of slight decrease during 2007-2008.
During the last 20 years total number of applications has tripled from where they were in 1996.
Worldwide
Trends

Growth of Filings across Patent Offices
The chart below shows filing trend of top ten countries in the last ten years
China which at the start of the last decade was at the third place in terms of applications; as compared
to others has the maximum rise in patent applications filed in the last ten years with US being nearly
equal with Japan in terms of the applications. During 2013-14 the total number of applications has
increased by 6, 77,193 over the previous two years. China Patent Office (SIPO) accounts for 31% of the
total increase. The United States Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Japan Patent Office (JPO)
account for 16.3% and 13.75% respectively of the total increase. This reflects the acceleration of the
shift in the geography of applications filed towards Asia. As a result of the high number of applications
filed in China, Asia is occupying an important position in IP filing, having received 58.4% of patent
applications filed worldwide.
Note: Since filing data is usually not available for some countries for 12-24 months the recent years are not
indicative of the actual values.
Worldwide
Trends

The charts below show a comparison of total number of applications filed in patent office’s between the
periods 2011-12 and 2013-14. The gap between SIPO and other patent office’s has increased over the
last five years.
Summary
Growing Patenting Activity:
Worldwide filings of patent applications have grown at a substantial rate i.e. from 12,601,187
applications during the period 1995-2005 to 15,206,132 applications in the subsequent period between
2005-2015, which is nearly an increase of 2.6 million applications. The growth rate is comparable to the
overall increase in economic activity over the same period.
The distribution of patent filings worldwide is very uneven. A small number of countries account for the
majority of patent filings both by residents and non-residents. Patent offices of China and the United
States of America receive the largest amount of patent applications followed by North East Asian
emerging States, namely Japan and the Republic of Korea and large industrialized European States. The
distribution of patent filings by office has changed in recent years, particularly as China and the Republic
of Korea are becoming major industrial economies and their use of the patent system is expanding.
Increasing Internationalization:
The use of patent system internationally has increased markedly in recent years. This can be seen in the
growth rate of total patent filings by non-residents and increase in non-resident patent filings in
countries such as China, India, Korea and the Russian Federation. However, the use of the patent system
remains highly concentrated with only five patent office’s (China, Japan, the European Patent Office, the
Republic of Korea and the United States of America) accounting for a major percentage of the total
applications.
Worldwide
Trends

Worldwide Technology Domain Distribution
Patent applications are filed under different technological domains. Furthermore, tendency of patent
applications differ across different technologies, as some technologies depend more heavily on the
patent systems than others. In order to understand the activity and trends across technologies, this
section presents data by different fields of technology.
As per the trends suggest in the last 5 years, Computer Technology and Electrical Machinery accounted
for maximum patent applications filed. These 2 fields have shown substantial growth since last 5 years.
The majority of fields have shown continuous growth in applications with Food Chemistry and
Telecommunications industry emerging as popular fields of innovation. Filings in Optics, Audio-visual
industry have dropped over last decade. Applications for Micro and Nano-structures have shown
substantial growth, but overall account for a very small portion of the number of applications.
From the multiple domains of technologies we selected Chemical Engineering, Electrical Machines,
Pharmaceutical, Telecommunication, Computer Technology and Fine Organic Chemistry for
representation purpose as these are the fields under which there is substantial number of applications
filed in the last ten years at different patent offices.
Note: The IPC to Technology correspondence is not always exact and that’s why all the filed applications in the
particular field are difficult to capture. But still the definitions are likely to capture major portion of applications
filed under the particular technology domains. Some of the applications do not have IPC codes; hence those were
not a part of the analysis.
Technological Domains No. of Applications
Electrical Machines 2366638
Telecommunication 2199036
Pharmaceutical 1686169
Engines/Pumps/Turbines 958386
Transport 1511010
Computer Technology 2722389
Food Chemistry 542243
Chemical Engineering 1142879
Medical Instruments 1488060
Organic Fine Chemistry 2512183
Worldwide
Trends

The pie charts below represent country wise specialization index across some of the popular technology
domains.
Worldwide
Trends

Following countries and authorities have been analyzed in further chapters of this report:
 United States (US)
 China (CN)
 France (FR)
 Great Britain (GB)
 Germany (DE)
 India (IN)
 Japan (JP)
 European Patent Office (EPO)
 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Worldwide
Trends

FILINGS BY COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
Top Applicants
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 companies at United States
Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO).
We identified top patent applicants by analysing 27,808,317 patent applications filed worldwide during
the period January 1995 to date. Top patent applicants have been selected on the basis of their
published patent applications. Generally, most patent jurisdictions publish a patent application 18
months after its earliest effective filing date, after which it is considered to be in the public domain.

Total applications filed at the United States Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) in the last 20 years is
4,174,213.It can be seen that many companies with Asian origin are among the top applicants at USPTO.
Asian companies account for more than 40% of the total applications published over the last 20 years.
Among the top 30 companies it is interesting to see that most of the companies belong to the fields of
Computer Technology and Electronics, and very few companies from Medical domain (which is also a
growing technological field) appear amongst the top applicants.
It’s interesting to note that companies like Canon, Hon Hai Precision and LG among other Asian
companies have only entered the top 10 applicants list in the last 10 years.What’s more, only three of
the top 10 are US companies namely IBM, Microsoft and General Electric.
IBM milks its annual number one spot very successfully. It is, no doubt, one of the reasons why the
company seems to be prepared to take a “patent everything that moves” approach. (Link:
http://www.iam-media.com/blog/detail.aspx?g=8820aab8-dde9-4bfa-ae77-8a5faed14220)
Top Resident Applicants
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 resident applicants at United
States Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Patent applications filed at a patent office are classified as resident or non-resident applications
according to the residency of the first named applicant. A resident application refers to an application
filed with patent office by an applicant residing in the country over with that patent office has
jurisdiction. For example, an application filed with the United States Patents and Trademark Office by an
applicant residing in the US is considered a resident application from the perspective of USPTO.
An application filed with a regional office is considered a resident application if the applicant is residing
in one of the member states of the main office. Resident applications are also known as domestic
applications.
Out of the total number of applications filed 1,143,529 are domestic applications. Analysing the
domestic filers, it can be seen that many companies from the list of top resident filers are from
Electronic Hardware Manufacturing and Information Technology industry, which gives the indication
that these industries are the pillars of the economic growth in the US. It is encouraging to note that
most of these organisations have improved their patenting intensity over the last decade. From the
complete list of applicants it can also be seen that Universities are also among the top applicants. IBM
leads the list of applicants by fairly large margin over Microsoft and General Electric.
US
Trends

The chart below graphically represents the number of applications filed by resident applicants.
TOPRESIDENTAPPLICANTS
US
Trends

Top Foreign Applicants
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 foreign applicants at United
States Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO).
Foreign applicants here mean a non-resident applicant. A Non- resident application refers to an
application filed with a patent office of a given country by an applicant residing in another country.
For example, a patent application filed with USPTO by an applicant residing in Britain is a non-resident
application from the perspective of USPTO. Total number of foreign applications at the USPTO over the
last 20 years is 3,004,130.
US
Trends

Samsung Electronics leads the list of foreign applicants followed by Canon, Sony, Toshiba and Fujitsu.
Applications by Samsung are 20% more than its nearest competitor Canon. Among the non-resident
filers it can be seen that most of the companies or institutes are from Electronic or Automobile industry.
Year-on-Year over the last decade Samsung leads the application, on the other hand companies like
Sony and Toshiba have gone ahead (in the last five years) of Fujitsu which was the third largest applicant
at USPTO until the beginning of the last decade.
The 4.1 million applications filed during the last two decades comprise approximately 3 million non-
resident applications. The increasing non-resident applications show how seriously foreign applicants
protect their innovations in the US. There are many Chinese applicants in the list. Chinese foreign-
oriented patent families are concentrated in a few technology fields, notably those related to the ICT
sector, “Digital Communication”, followed by “Computer Technology”, “Nanotechnology”, and similar
fields.
Growth of non-resident applicants is far more than that of the resident applicants at the USPTO. Global
companies especially Asian, are collecting more U.S. patents as compared to their European
counterparts, which is elaborated in the overall applicants chart above wherein seven of the top ten
applicants are Asian. It does not mean that U.S. companies have lost their verve for patents, as their
patent portfolios are also constantly growing. But it seems that Asian companies have apparently made
it a higher priority.
Domain-wise Distribution
Charts below graphically represent the distribution of applications in different technology domains.
In this case different domains were identified from the IPC-Technology concordance table published by
WIPO Statistics Database. The table contains different IPCs classified into different technological sectors
such as Chemistry, Instruments, Computer Technology, Mechanical and so on.
US
Trends

indicative of the actual values
US
Trends

indicative of the actual values.
US
Trends

According to the concordance table and the charts above, it can be seen that Computer Technology is
the field where there is maximum patent protection. Other domains of growth appear to be Organic
Fine Chemistry, Medical Instruments and Electrical Machines.
Under Computer Technology it appears that significant portion of the patent portfolio attempts to
protect techniques related to information retrieval (which can be interpreted as search – IPC code G06F
17/30). Further, a significant portion of the portfolio attempts to protect techniques related to e-
commerce and IT methods for management (IPC code – G06Q30/00).
IBM leads the list of companies under Computer Technology with 43,773 applications out of the total
number of applications for Computer Technology at USPTO. This amounts for nearly 6% of the total
applications in this field. Other companies following IBM are Microsoft, Samsung, Fujitsu, Canon,
Toshiba, Sony, Apple, Hon Hai Precision and Micron Technology which form the top ten applicants.
Interestingly it can be observed that out of the top ten applicants six are of foreign origin. The chart
below elaborates the same.
US
Trends

US Record Type and Term Extension Information
This covers US Record type (Continuation/CIP/ Divisional, etc). It also captures if the US record has a
Term Extension or a Disclaimer. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issues several different
types of patent documents offering different kinds of protection and covering different types of subject
matter. Different types of applications focused in this report are:
 Provisional Application for a Patent
 Non-Provisional Application for a Patent
 Continuation
 Continuation-in-part
 Division
 A-371
A provisional patent application allows you to file without a formal patent claim, oath or declaration, or
any information disclosure (prior art) statement. A provisional application for patent has a pendency
lasting 12 months from the date the provisional application is filed. The 12-month pendency period
cannot be extended. Therefore, an applicant who files a provisional application must file a
corresponding non-provisional application for patent (non-provisional application) during the 12-month
pendency period of the provisional application in order to benefit from the earlier filing of the
provisional application.
Non-Provisional Patent Application establishes an invention's filing date (unless it claims the benefit of
an earlier filed application, such as a Provisional Application). Filing a Non-Provisional Application starts
the official examination process with the USPTO to determine if the invention is patentable.
A continuation application is a patent application filed by an applicant who wants to pursue additional
claims to an invention disclosed in an earlier application of the applicant (the "parent" application) that
has not yet been issued or abandoned. Continuing patent application is a patent application that
follows, and claims priority to, an earlier-filed patent application.
A continuation-in-part application also referred to as CIP or CIP application is one in which the
applicant adds subject matter not disclosed in the parent, but repeats substantial portion of the parent's
specification, and shares at least one inventor with the parent application. The CIP application is a
convenient way to claim enhancements developed after the parent application was filed
A divisional patent application (sometimes referred to as a divisional application or simply a divisional) is
a type of patent application which contains matter from a previously filed application (the so-called
parent application). Whilst a divisional application is filed later than the parent application, it may retain
its parent's filing date, and will generally claim the same priority.
A 371 application is an application which has entered the national phase of the Patent Cooperation
Treaty by the fulfillment of certain requirements in a national Office, which is an authority entrusted
with the granting of national or regional patents. Such an application is filed under 35 U.S.C. §371 in the
United States and is referred to as a 371 application.
US
Trends

IBM which is the top applicant has 10,353 continuation applications, which is the most among the top
twenty applicants. Qualcomm has 6,231 provisional applications which is nearly half of its entire
portfolio.
US
Trends

Organization-wise Distribution
Charts below graphically represent the distribution of applications in different organizational segments.
In Organization-wise Distribution, different applicants were identified as Firms, Individuals, Government
Organizations and Institutes (Institute include Universities, Academies, Hospitals) by manual research
and classifying the extensions under different organizations. Firms refer to a business organization, such
as a corporation, limited liability company or partnership.
We have split the charts for Firms and other applicant types as there were a large number of documents
under Firms as compared to others.
US
Trends

Out of the total 4.1 million applications filed at the United States Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO),
firms account for 2,245,094 applications which is far more than the second largest sector/segment
which are the Universities. Universities account for 1,10,526 applications. Out of the total applications
by different Universities, 33,118 applications have been filed by Universities with Asian origin.The charts
below show top ten Universities filing at USPTO and the top five foreign Universities.
Top Five Foreign Universities
US
Trends

FILINGS BY COUNTRY: CHINA
Top Applicants
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 applicants at China’s State
Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).
We identified top patent applicants by analyzing 27,808,317 patent applications published worldwide
during the period January 1995 to date. China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) led worldwide
patent application filings by a large margin, with 8,25,136 filed in 2013.This margin is up 26.4% over
2012.Comparatively, the growth of the next three busiest patent office’s lag far behind, with the United
States only increasing by 5% with 5,71,612 filings, Japan down 4% with 3,28,436 and Korea up by 8% at
2,04,589(Source: http://www.ip-watch.org/2015/04/22/a-look-at-the-huge-upswing-in-china-patent-
filings/)

Total applications filed at the Chinese Patent Office (SIPO) in the last 20 years are 4,539,927. It can be
seen that most of the company’s filing at the Chinese patent office are local companies or are of Asian
origin. There are only six non Asian companies in the list of top 20 applicants. IBM which is one of the
most prominent applicants worldwide is at the 15th
position. Among the top 30 companies it is
interesting to see that most of the companies belong to Electronics& Telecommunication industry.
In terms of the number of its patent applications, in 2012 China has emerged as the country with the
largest IP office in the world. The performance of the Chinese IP system is thus increasingly in the
spotlight; better understanding the linkages between IP activity and socio-economic development in
China is a priority. Also, the rapid development of China’s IP system holds important lessons for other
low- and middle-income countries.
In the last two years, SIPO accounted for the largest number of applications received by any single IP
office. As mentioned above, of the 8,25,136 patents filed in 2013, nearly 85% of these were
domestic/resident filings. That means the other 15% filings came from foreign entities. As global
enterprises continue to expand their businesses to emerging consumer-rich markets, such as China, or
benefit from outsourcing manufacturing and other processes to China’s economy, they are compelled to
file patents in China.
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 resident applicants at China’s
State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).
jurisdiction. For example, an application filed with the Chinese Patent Office (SIPO) by an applicant
residing in China is considered a resident application from the perspective of SIPO.An application filed
with a regional office is considered a resident application if the applicant is residing in one of the
member states of the main office. Resident applications are also known as domestic applications.
While the Chinese government’s incentives to support patent filings have spurred growth, we still see
many Chinese companies that do not fully comprehend the value of patents or IP in general. While
many, if not most, Chinese companies do not have a deep understanding of the potential value of IP,
this knowledge is becoming more prevalent. This accounts for the increase in domestic applications.
However, while the numbers of applications are increasing, a direct link to an equivalent increase in
value has not been seen. (Source:http://www.ip-watch.org/2015/04/22/a-look-at-the-huge-upswing-in-
china-patent-filings/)
Out of the total number of applications filed in the last 20 years 7,73,244 are domestic applications.
Huawei leads the list of domestic filers with 21,414 applications, which is nearly double the number of
applications filed by its nearest competitor ZTE Corp. It can also be seen that nearly 50% of the top
applicants are Universities, which indicates that there is a strong foundation for research in China. This
rise in Academies/Universities filing in large numbers is because Chinese Government has given
China
Trends

Universities (as well as local companies) funds for filing patents in order to spur innovation - one
measure of which is the number of patents filed by China, as a country.
China
Trends

The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 foreign applicants at China’s
State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO).
The 4.4 million applications filed during the last two decades comprise approximately 3.6 million non-
resident applications. The increasing non-Chinese applications show how seriously foreign applicants
protect their innovations in China.
China
Trends

Samsung Electronics leads the list of foreign applicants followed by Sony, Fujitsu, ZTE and Huawei.
Among the non-resident filers it can be seen that most of the companies or institutes are from
Electronic & Telecommunication industry. A lot of companies from the neighboring countries Japan and
Korea are increasingly filing in China.
such as Chemistry, Engines, Computer Technology, and Transport and so on.
China
Trends

China
Trends

According to the concordance table and the charts above, it can be seen that Electrical Machines
(3,86,879 applications) is the field where there is maximum patent protection closely followed by
Organic Chemistry. Other domains of growth appear to be Telecommunication, Machine Tools and
Computer Technology respectively.
Under Electrical Machines it appears that significant portion of the patent portfolio attempts to protect
techniques related to miniature lighting device, e.g. light emitting diodes (LED) (which can be
interpreted as search – IPC code F21Y101/02). Further, a significant portion of the portfolio attempts to
protect techniques related to circuit arrangements for charging or depolarizing batteries or for supplying
loads from batteries (IPC code – H02J7/00).
State Grid Corp China leads the list of companies under electrical machines with 4,924 applications out
of the total number of applications for electrical machines at SIPO. Other companies actively filing in this
field are Matsushita, Samsung, Siemens, Sony, Philips Siemens, Toyota, Hon Hai Precision, and
Mitsubishi which form the top ten applicants. It can be seen that out of top ten applicants many are
non-Chinese companies. The chart below elaborates the same facts.
China
Trends

Organisation-wise Distribution
We split the chart for Firms and other applicant types as there were a large number of documents under
Firms as compared to others.
China
Trends

Out of the total 4.5 million applications filed at the Chinese Patent Office (SIPO), firms account for
2848645 applications which is far more than the second largest sector/segment which are the
Universities. Institutes account for 8,10,738 applications. Other most prominent sector is Government
Organizations, which account for 46,774 applications in the last 20 years with the maximum number of
application being filed in the year 2013 (13,000).The charts below show top ten Universities filing at
SIPO and the top ten institutes.
Top Ten Institutes
China
Trends

FILINGS BY COUNTRY: FRANCE
Top Applicants
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 applicants at French Patent
Office (INPI).
during the period January 1995 to date. Top patent applicants have been selected on the basis of their
published patent applications. Out of the total applications 3,05,016 applications have been filed at the
French Patent Office (INPI).Twelve French groups are included in the list of 100 most innovative
organizations, nine French companies (Alcatel-Lucent, Arkema, EADS, L’Oréal, Michelin, Saint-Gobain,
Thales, Safran and Valeo) and 3 French public bodies (CEA, CNRS and IFP Energies Nouvelles)
(http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy-1/economic-diplomacy-foreign-trade/facts-
about-france/one-figure-one-fact/article/12-french-groups-ranked-among-the)

Total applications filed at the French Patent Office (INPI) are 3,05,016. It can be seen that none of the
top applicants worldwide namely IBM, Microsoft, Sony, Huawei do not appear in the top 30 applicants in
France. Among the top 30 companies it is interesting to see that most of the companies are French with
some from Germany and Asia. It can be seen that Peugeot lead the list of applicants with 10,354
applications closely followed by Renault and Commissariat Energie Atomique.
There has been no change in the top three applicants but some of the companies have shown
substantial increase in the applications filed in the last four years, Renault had 595 applications during
the period 2011-2012 which has grown to 1,084 applications in the subsequent period of 2013-2014.
Similarly Schneider has recently moved into the list top 30 applicants with nearly 50% increase in the
applications filed.
Companies in the automotive sector still file the most patent applications, followed by the main
industrial sectors: cosmetics, aeronautics, telecommunications, electronics, chemicals and energy.
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 resident applicants at French
Patent Office (INPI).
jurisdiction.
For example, an application filed with the French Patent Office by an applicant residing in the France is
considered a resident application from the perspective of INPI.
applications.
Out of the total number of applications filed 2,49,833 are domestic applications. Analyzing the domestic
filers, it can be seen that many companies from the list of top resident filers are from automotive,
cosmetics and aeronautics sectors. It is encouraging to note that most of these organizations have
improved their patenting intensity over the last five years. From the complete list of applicants it can
also be seen that Universities/Institutes are also among the top applicants. Research institutions still
rank among the top ten, The Commissariat à l’Energie Atomiqueet aux Energies Alternatives (the French
Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission) ranks 3rd
with 6,258 applications, CNRS ranks 6th
with 3,658 applications.
France
Trends

France
Trends

The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 foreign applicants at French
Patent Office (INPI).
application filed with a patent office of a given country by an applicant residing in another country. For
example, a patent application filed with INPI by an applicant residing in US is a non-resident application
from the perspective of INPI. Total number of foreign applications at the French Patent Office over the
last 20 years is 55,183.
Out of the total 305016 applications at INPI only 55,183 are by companies or institutes from outside
France. There has been a slight increase in the applications by foreign applicants in the last four year but
overall the percentage as compared o the total number of applications filed remains low.
France
Trends

Robert Bosch leads the list of foreign applicants followed by General Electric, Canon, Denso and
Mitsubishi. Applications by Robert Bosch are 23% more than its nearest competitor General Electric.
Automobile or Electrical and Electronics industry.
It can be seen that as many as six Asian companies are in the top 20 applicants in France with very few
from the United States. Number of applications by Robert Bosch in the last three years has decreased as
compared to the previous period, but still it is the top most foreign applicant in France.
Growth of non-resident applicants is far less than that of the resident applicants at the INPI. Global
companies especially Asian and German are collecting more FR patents as compared to their other
European counterparts, which are elaborated in the overall applicants chart above wherein four of the
top ten applicants are Asian.
such as Transport and Vehicles, Automobile, Engines, Audio-Visual Technology, Consumer Goods and so
on. Charts below graphically represent the distribution of applications in different sectors.
France
Trends

France
Trends

According to the concordance table and the chart above, it can be seen that Transport is the field where
there is maximum patent protection. Other domains of growth appear to be Organic Fine Chemistry,
Electrical Machines and Digital Communication.
Under Transport it appears that significant portion of the patent portfolio attempts to protect
techniques related to Vehicle in general and heating, cooling or ventilating devices(which can be
interpreted as search – IPC code B60H1/00). Further, a significant portion of the portfolio attempts to
protect techniques related to Vehicle in general and Electric or fluid circuits specially adapted for
vehicles (IPC code – B60R16/02).
Peugeot Citroen leads the list of companies under Transport and Vehicles in general with 7,141
applications out of the total number of applications for Transport and Vehicles at INPI. This amounts for
14% of the total applications in this field. Other companies following Peugeot Citroen are Renault,
Robert Bosch, Michelin, Valeo, Faurecia Auto, Eurocopter, CERA and Valeo Climatisation which form the
top ten applicants. The chart below elaborates the same.
France
Trends

We split the chart for Firms and other applicant types as there were a large number of documents under
France
Trends

Out of the total 3,05,016 applications filed at the French Patent Office (INPI), firms account for
1,76,630 applications which are far more than the second largest sector/segment which are the
Government Organizations. Govt. Organizations account for 7,330 applications. Charts below show the
top ten Government Organizations and top ten Universities (which account for the third largest sector
among the others).
Top Ten Universities
France
Trends

FILINGS BY COUNTRY: GREAT BRITAIN
Top Applicants
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 applicants at Intellectual Property
Office of the United Kingdom.
We identified top patent applicants by analyzing 27,808,317patent applications published worldwide
during the period January 1995 to date. Top patent applicants have been selected on the basis of their
published patent applications. Out of the total applications 7, 73,598 applications have been filed at the
Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom.

Total applications filed at the Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom in the last 20 years
are7,73,598. Among the top 30 companies it is interesting to see that most of the companies belong to
fields of Automobile, Computer Technology and Electronics & Telecommunication, and some companies
from Medical domain (which is also a booming technology market) appear amongst the top applicants.
It’s interesting to note that GlaxoSmithKline Plc which is the top most applicant (5,711 applications) in
Britain during 1995-2005 has slipped to the second spot with just 1,105 applications in the subsequent
decade, which is nearly 85% decrease in the applications filed. On the contrary Rolls Royce which was at
the tenth spot at the end of 2005 with 1,763 applications is now ranked at the fourth position with more
than 2,800 applications filed in the last ten years.
IBM, which is one of the top applicants in the world has entered British markets only in the last ten years
and currently is the top most filer in Britain with 6,852 applications.
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 resident applicants at Intellectual
Property Office of the United Kingdom.
jurisdiction.
For example, an application filed with the Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom by an
applicant residing in the GB is considered a resident application from the perspective of Intellectual
applications.
Out of the total number of applications filed 1,16,616 are domestic applications. Analysing the domestic
filers, it can be seen that many companies from the list of top resident filers are from Automobile and
Transportation industry and also some from the Electronics & Telecommunication industry. It is
encouraging to note that most of these organisations have improved their patenting intensity over the
last decade. From the complete list of applicants it can also be seen that none of the universities (which
is the second largest sector) appear in the list top applicants. Rolls-Royce leads the list of domestic
applicants followed by SECR Defence and the Rover Group.
Britain
Trends

Britain
Trends

The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 foreign applicants at Intellectual
example, a patent application filed with Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom by an
applicant residing in India is a non-resident application from the perspective of Intellectual Property
Office of the United Kingdom. Total number of foreign applications over the last 20 years is 6,57,068.
The increasing non-resident applications show the growing interest of foreign applicants in the British
market.
Britain
Trends

IBM leads the list of foreign applicants followed by Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, NEC and Schlumberger.
Computer Technology, Electronic and Mechanical industry.
IBM which is at the top of the list of applicants with 6,874 applications was way behind at the fifth
position at the end of 2005 with 2,304 applications. Schlumberger which was not a part of the top five
companies in 2005 has entered the top five applicants with 3,916 applications. Unilever is the company
with the maximum drop in its position in the top 30 applicants.
such as Consumer Goods, Telecommunication, Computer Technology, Transport, Machine Tools and so
on. Charts below graphically represent the distribution of application in different sectors.
Britain
Trends

Britain
Trends

According to the concordance table and the chart above, it can be seen that Civil Engineering is the
domain where there is maximum patent protection. Other domains of growth appear to be Computer
Technology and Telecommunication.
Under Civil Engineering it appears that significant portion of the patent portfolio attempts to protect
techniques related to earth or rock drilling and setting of casings, screens or liners in wells (which can be
interpreted as search – IPC code E21B43/10). Further, a significant portion of the portfolio attempts to
protect techniques related survey of boreholes or wells (IPC code – E21B47/00).
Schlumberger leads the list of companies under civil engineering with 1,196 applications out of the total
number of applications for computer technology at Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom. It
is very interesting to see that nine out of the top ten applicants in this field are of foreign origin, with
Schlumberger leading the list. In terms of growth in applications is concerned Hughes Tools has nearly
doubled the number of applications in the last five years.
Britain
Trends

We split the charts for Firms and other applicant types as there were a large number of documents
Britain
Trends

Out of the total 7,73,598 applications filed at the Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom,
firms account for 4,99,494 applications which are far more than the second largest sector/segment
which are the Universities and Hospitals. Firms account for 65% of the total applications filed in Britain.
Universities account for 23,120 applications and Hospitals have 5,894 applications.
IBM being the top most applicants, let’s have a look at the technological sub divisions IBM is
concentrating on. The pie chart below shows the top five IPC’s wherein IBM is the most active in Britain.
The bar chart shows the top ten Universities actively filing in Britain.
Britain
Trends

FILINGS BY COUNTRY: GERMANY
Top Applicants
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 applicants at German Patent and
Trade Mark Office (DPMA).
during the period January 1995 to date. Total applications filed at the German Patent and Trade
Mark Office (DPMA) are 9,21,799. Rate of applications has grown since the start of this decade with
nearly double the number of applications filed in the last ten years. Germany is one of the few countries
where there is no slowdown in year-on-year growth in R&D expenditure.

Total applications filed at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) are 9,21,799. The number
of patent applications increased by 4.4% compared to 2013. Among the top 30 companies it is
interesting to see that most of the companies belong to the fields of automobile and manufacturing
Industry and some companies from Electrical Machines and Telecommunication industry.
In 2014, 54,537 inventions were filed for application with the DPMA. Compared to 2013, this is an
increase by 2,434 applications which is approximately 4.4% increase. Foreign applications rose from
15,058 to 16,508, which is also quite a substantial increase in the application. As in the previous years,
the USA, Japan and China are in the lead at considerable distance from other countries with regard to
foreign applications. With respect to the fields of innovation in 2014, the fields of General Engineering
and Automotive Engineering proved to be particularly innovative.
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 resident applicants at DPMA.
jurisdiction.
For example, an application filed with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) by an applicant
residing in the Germany is considered a resident application from the perspective of DPMA. An
application filed with a regional office is considered a resident application if the applicant is residing in
one of the member states of the main office. Resident applications are also known as domestic
applications.
Out of the total number of applications filed 7,03,348 are domestic applications. Analysing the domestic
filers, it can be seen that many companies from the list of top resident filers are from Automobile and
Manufacturing industry, which is an expected trend considering local companies such as Volkswagen,
Daimler and other automotive giants filing for applications in large numbers. The year-on-year growth in
application marks the faith of domestic companies in the Germany market.
Robert Bosch leads the list of top thirty applicants in the last two decades with 46,826 applications,
which is then followed by Siemens (35,263 applications). Interestingly Siemens has lesser number of
applications than Robert Bosch in the last ten years (2005-2015) as compared to the previous period
during which Siemens was at the top of the list of applicants with 17889 applications and Robert Bosch
was second with 17,092 applications. This indicated that there has been more than 36% increase in the
filing rate for Robert Bosch. Same is the case with BASF which has dropped out of the top five applicants
in the last decade before which it was the third largest innovator.
Germany
Trends

Germany
Trends

The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 foreign applicants at German
Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA).
example, a patent application filed with German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) by an applicant
residing in Britain is a non-resident application from the perspective of DPMA.
Total number of foreign applications at DPMA over the last 20 years is 2,18,470. Foreign applications are
far less than the domestic applications.
Germany
Trends

GM Global Technology leads the list of foreign applicants followed by Denso, Mitsubishi, Ford Global
and Toyota. GM Global has nearly 6% of the share of total foreign applications in Germany in the last
twenty years, which is nearly 32% more as compared to Denso. Among the non-resident filers it can be
seen that most of the companies are from Automobile and Manufacturing Industry.
At the end of 2005 GM Global was not a part of the list of top ten applicants in Germany, but now it is
the leader in Germany in the last ten years. It is also interesting to see that as many as six Asian
companies feature in the list of top ten applicants in 2015. Global companies especially Asian, are
collecting more patents in Germany as compared to their European counterparts, which is elaborated in
the overall applicants chart.
such as Transportation, Automobile, Engines, and Electrical Machines and so on. Charts below
graphically represent the distribution of application in different sectors.
Germany
Trends

Germany
Trends

According to the concordance table and the chart above, it can be seen that Transportation is the field
where there is maximum patent protection. Other domains of growth appear to be Engines, Electrical
Machines and Machine Tools.
Many major automobile manufacturers are based out of Germany, so engine development becomes an
important field to innovate in. Under Engines (includes Pumps & Turbines) it appears that significant
portion of the patent portfolio attempts to protect techniques related to controlling combustion engines
and Electrical control of supply of combustible mixture or its constituents (which can be interpreted as
search – IPC code F02D41/00). Further, a significant portion of the portfolio attempts to protect
techniques related to electrical control of one of the functions: ignition, lubricating, cooling, starting,
intake-heating (IPC code – F02D45/00).
Robert Bosch leads the list of companies for innovation around Engines/Pumps/Turbines with 7,931
applications out of the total number of applications for Engines/Pumps/Turbines at DPMA. This amounts
for 16% of the total applications in this field. Other companies following Robert Bosch are GM Global,
Denso, Daimler, General Electric, Siemens, Ford, BMW which forms the top ten applicants. The chart
below elaborates the same.
Germany
Trends

Germany
Trends

Out of the total application filed at DPMA, Firms account for 4,28,986 applications in the last ten years,
with a slight decrease in the applications during the period 2010-2011. The second largest sector
wherein there is steep rise in application is Universities followed by Institutes. Universities and Institutes
account for 12,708 and 13,303 applications respectively in the last ten years.
The charts below show top ten universities followed by top foreign universities filing in Germany.
University of Dresden leads the application filed in the last two decades by domestic universities.
Top Ten Foreign Universities
Germany
Trends

FILINGS BY COUNTRY: INDIA
Top Applicants
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 applicants at the Indian Patent
Office (IPO).
We identified top patent applicants worldwide; the period considered was from Jan 1995 to date. Total
27,808,317 applications were filed worldwide during that period (filings for all the countries). In the
different sections below we have identified the key players in the India patent market and the sectors
where there is progressive innovation.

Total applications filed at the Indian Patent Office in the last 20 years are 3,63,455. If we consider the
span of last five years, there has been constant growth in applications. 69,596 applications were filed in
the period 2010-2011. The number of applications grew in the subsequent year by 1,156 to reach
70,752.
Qualcomm leads the companies with 7,241 applications followed by Philips and Microsoft.
Telecommunication and automobile industry have maximum growth in the last two decades. These
industries remain one of the highest revenue-earning industries in India.
According to the World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPO-2012) report, while China’s contribution
to the rise in patent applications globally has increased from 37.2 per cent between 1995-2009 to 72.1%
between 2009-2011, India’s contribution decreased from 3.5 per cent between 1995-2009 to 2.7 per
cent between 2009-2011.
(http://indianexpress.com/article/business/economy/india-sees-sharp-drop-in-patent-applications/)
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 resident applicants at Indian
Patent Office (IPO).
jurisdiction.
For example, an application filed with the Indian Patent Office by an applicant residing in the India is
considered a resident application from the perspective of IPO. An application filed with a regional office
is considered a resident application if the applicant is residing in one of the member states of the main
office. Resident applications are also known as domestic applications.
While patent filing at the Indian patent office has seen a rise of close to 25% from 2007-08 to 2012-13,
assessment shows that only a meagre 16.21% of them have been filed by Indian applicants in 2012-13.
Out of the total number of applications filed 58,069 are domestic applications. Analysing the domestic
filers, it can be seen that many companies from the list of top resident filers are from Pharmaceutical,
Automobile and Telecommunication Industry, which are also the fastest growing industries worldwide.
It is encouraging to note that most of these organisations have improved their patenting intensity over
the last decade with the maximum application in the period 2012-2015 (25,358 applications). CSIR leads
the list of applicants by fairly large margin over Hindustan Unilever Limited and Crompton Greaves
Limited.
India
Trends

India
Trends

The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 foreign applicants at Indian
Patent Office (IPO).
For example, a patent application filed with Indian Patent Office by an applicant residing in US is a non-
resident application from the perspective of USPTO. Total number of foreign applications at the IPO over
the last 20 years is 3,04,382.
Out of the applications filed during the last two decades comprise of nearly 80% non-resident
applications. The increasing non-resident applications show how seriously foreign applicants protect
their innovations in India.
India
Trends

India has a fast growing telecommunication industry; recent growth in this sector is all because of
change in policies, cheaper handsets, lower calling rates and a increasingly competitive market. India is
third in the world if the network size is taken into consideration.
World’s leading telecommunication companies actively protect their innovations in India. Qualcomm
has filed maximum number of patent applications in India accounting to 7,241 applications followed by
Samsung, Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, LG and Research in Motion. Growth of non-resident applicants is
far more than that of the resident applicants at the Indian Patent Office. After closely analyzing the data
it is inferred the Qualcomm entered the Indian market only after 2005, but its applications has doubled
in the last five years.
Another globally important industry which is automobiles has shown impressive progress in India. This
fact can be verified by the number of foreign automobile companies featuring in the top 30 applicants.
Indian automobile market is currently dominated by the two-wheeler segment but with an expanding
middle class population, growing earning power and industrial development, the demand for passenger
cars and commercial vehicles will increase exponentially. Due to the continuous growth foreign
automotive investment is also on the rise. Currently, the foreign auto companies having assembly plants
in India include Mercedes Benz ,General Motors, Ford, Hyundai, Honda, Suzuki, Nissan Motors, Toyota,
Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, BMW, Fiat, Volvo and Yamaha.
WIPO Statistics Database. The chart below provides a domain-wise breakdown of the patent
applications filed with IPO during the last five years. The table contains different IPCs classified into
different technological sectors such as Organic Chemistry, Pharmaceutical, Automobile,
Telecommunication and so on. Charts below graphically represent the distribution of application in
different sectors.
India
Trends

India
Trends

The constant progress of India in the economic landscape has pitched the country as potential
destination for research, development and innovation. According to the concordance table and the
chart above, it can be seen that Chemistry is the field where there is maximum patent protection. Other
active domains are growing Pharmaceutical, Telecommunication.
Under Organic Fine chemistry it appears that significant portion of the patent portfolio attempts to
protect Medicinal preparations containing organic active ingredients and hydrocarbon (which can be
interpreted as search – IPC code A61K31/00). Other prominent industry is Pharmaceutical with 23,870
applications in the last ten years. Automobile and engine development industry has also shown
promising growth in the last decade, with maximum application (3,394) being filed in the year 2014.
The pie charts below show top ten Pharmaceutical companies followed by Automobile & Transport.
India
Trends

We split the charts for Firms and other applicant types as there were a large number of entries under
India
Trends

Other than Firms, Universities and Government Organizations are the most active segments in India.
Firms account for 2,99,729 applications out of the total applications filed at the Indian Patent Office,
Institute (Universities, Institutes and Hospitals), Individuals and Government Organizations account for
20,026, 3,038 and7,805 application respectively. Firms include companies from different domains such
as Telecommunication, Automobile, Computer Technology and Pharmaceutical etc. It is surprising to see
the absence of Information Technology (IT) companies from the list of top Indian applicants. This can be
because of the perception among such companies that IPO does not grant software patents. However
this absence can be because of the fact that most of these Indian software firms cater majorly to the
markets outside India, and their clients usually own the Intellectual Property they produce.
Software patents are one of the most contentious issues in Intellectual Property Rights. The growing
economic significance of computers and computer programs gives software patents this controversial
status. It can be noted that after biotechnology patents, it is software patents which really attracts
major public discussions on patents
The increasing significance of software patents warrants further discussion about its protection in India.
As new software giants build their research and develop centers in India we must also think about
analyzing the protection given to the software. This discussion assumes special significance when
we look at the patenting activities of some of the big companies such as Microsoft, Qualcomm, and IBM.
The charts below show top ten companies in Computer Technology sector between the periods 1995-
2005 and 2006-2015.
India
Trends

It can be seen that in the initial period from 1995-2005, Microsoft was the top applicant with nearly half
of the total applications. In the subsequent period from 2006-2015, Microsoft’s share has reduced
substantially and Qualcomm which was not even in the top five applicants, is the second largest
applicant now with 933 applications. Interestingly Tata which was nowhere in terms of applications filed
during 1995-2005 has entered the list of top ten applicants with 280 applications filed.
The pie chart below indicates the technology segments (IPC Class) under which Microsoft is most active.
India
Trends

FILINGS BY COUNTRY: JAPAN
Top Applicants
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 applicants at the Japanese Patent
Office (JPO).
during the period January 1995 to date. Total applications filed at the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) are
6,701,104. Rate of applications has decreased in the last ten years as compared to the previous period
1995 - 2005. Japan is third in the list of countries investing in R&D behind America and China. In spite of
the large number of application in the last twenty years Japan had a decline of nearly 4% in the total
number of applications in 2014.

Total applications filed at the Japan Patent Office (JPO) in the last 20 years is 6,701,104. It can be seen
that many companies with Asian origin are among the top applicants; overall top filers such as IBM and
Microsoft have comparatively lesser interest in protecting their inventions in Japan as compared to
other countries. Samsung which is a major applicant in Asia does not feature in the list of top thirty
applicants. Among the top 30 companies it can be seen that most of the companies belong to the fields
of Automobile and Electronics, and few companies from Telecommunication Industry appear amongst
the top applicants.
Canon leads the list of top filers in Japan. But during the period 1995-2005 Matsushita lead the list with
Canon at the second position. Total number of applications filed at the Japanese Patent Office is nearly
24% of the total applications filed worldwide.
WIPO Statistics Database. The chart below provides a domain-wise breakdown of the patent
applications filed with JPO during the last ten years. The table contains different IPCs classified into
different technological sectors such as Organic Chemistry, Pharmaceutical, Automobile,
Telecommunication and so on. Charts below graphically represent the distribution of applications in
different sectors.
Japan
Trends

Japan
Trends

The constant progress of Japan in the economic landscape has pitched the country as potential
destination for research and development activities. According to the concordance table and the chart
above, it can be seen that Audio-Visual Technology and Optics are the field where there is maximum
patent protection. Other actively developing domains are Transport and Organic Fine Chemistry.
Under Audio-Visual Technology with 8,16,345 applications covers significant portion of the patent
portfolio with most of the applications relating to Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents
or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission(which can be interpreted as search – IPC code H04N1/00).The
second most prominent industry is Optics with 7,02,975 applications. Transport industry has also shown
promising growth in the last decade, with maximum application (4,10,954) being filed during 1995-2015.
The pie charts below show top ten companies from the Audio-Visual and Optics Industries.
Japan
Trends

We split the charts for Firms and other applicant types as there were a large number of entries under
Japan
Trends

Other than Firms, Institutes and Government Organizations are the most active segments in Japan.
Firms account for 816345applications out of the total applications filed at the Japan Patent Office,
Institute (Universities, Institutes and Hospitals), Individuals and Government Organizations account for
1,51,640/ 1,152 and 20,858 application respectively. Firms include companies from different domains
such as Audio-Visual, Automobile, Optics and Telecommunication etc.
Other growing technological fields in Japan in 2014 are Computer Technology, Electrical Machines &
apparatus, Measurement, Digital Communication and Medical Technology.
Second most prominent segment Institutes have experienced a decrease in the number of application
filed in the last five years, with the maximum number of application being filed in the year 2005.
Chart below shows filings for top ten Institutes over the last two decades.
Japan
Trends

FILINGS BY AUTHORITY: EUROPEAN PATENT OFFICE
Top Applicants and Application Trend
We identified top patent applicants by analyzing 27,808,317patent applications published worldwide
during the period January 1995 to date. Total applications filed at the European Patent Office in the
same period are 2,155,748.Top patent applicants have been selected on the basis of their published
patent applications. Generally, most patent jurisdictions publish a patent application 18 months after its
earliest effective filing date, after which it is considered to be in the public domain.
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 applicants at European Patent
Office (EPO).

The 38 member states of the European Patent Organisation consolidated their share of 33% of the total
filings at the EPO last year. During the last year; filings from Germany accounted for 49%, followed by
France (16%), Italy (9%), Britain (7%), Austria (2.6%), Spain (1.7%) and Netherlands (1.7%). As in last two
decades, around 67% of the filings at the EPO were from non-European countries. The US accounted for
the largest share with 6,97,809 applications, followed by Japan (3,58,879), Korea (54,129) and China
(28,267).
In 2014, 27,768 inventions were filed for application with the European Patent Office compared to 2013
(97,192). This shows a significant drop in applications in the last year. With respect to the fields of
innovation in 2014, the fields of Semiconductors and Computer Technology proved to be particularly
innovative.
In terms of the top companies Siemens leads the total number of application filed by a commercial
organisation with 28,848 applications, followed by Robert Bosch and Samsung with 21,192 and 21,186
applications respectively.
Interestingly even if Siemens is the top most applicant at EPO, Samsung leads the number of filing in the
last three years with 2,290/ 2,513 and 1,697 applications during 2012- 2014.Samsung has shown
constant growth in application during the last ten years with a slight decrease in 2014. Applications for
Siemens have decreased substantially from 1,969 applications in 2013 to 286 application in 2014.
The chart below shows the filing trend at EPO during the last fifteen years.
EPO
Trends

Filings from US have decreased during 2014 as compared to previous two years 2013 and 2012. Highest
number of application form US came in the year 2007 with 43,533. Japan as mentioned earlier is ranked
second in terms of the total filings at EPO. Surprisingly Korea which had negligible application at the
start of this decade is at par with China in terms of the application in the last five years.
EPO
Trends

EPO
Trends

There was major growth in filings from Britain and France in the last three years. A stable development
was noted from Italy, Sweden, Netherlands and of course Germany (showing constant rise in application
in the decade). There was a drop in the number of filings from Finland, Switzerland and Spain.
such as Transportation, Automobile, Engines, Electrical Machines and so on. Charts below graphically
represent the distribution of application in different sectors.
EPO
Trends

EPO
Trends

According to the concordance table and the chart above, it can be seen that Organic Fine Chemistry is
the field where there is maximum patent protection. Other domains of growth appear to be Medical
Technology, Digital Communication and Computer Technology.
If we compare the top five technology field at EPO; Electrical Machinery is the tech sector with the most
number of applications which complements the fact that companies like Samsung and Siemens are the
top most applicants during the same period. Medical Technology and Digital Communication which were
the fields with constant applications over the last decade have experienced the biggest drop in the
number of applications received in during 2013.Computer Technology which accounts for the most
number of applications at EPO in the last two decades has shown a drop in the total applications in the
last three years.
The following pie charts show the total number of applications in the fields of Mechanical and
Engineering in the span of last five years.
EPO
Trends

Organization-wiseDistribution

Out of the total application filed at European Patent Office, Firms account for 1,854,871 applications in
the last twenty years, with a slight decrease in the applications during the period 2009-2010.The second
largest sector wherein the is steep rise in application is Institutes(include Institutes, Universities and
Hospitals). Institutes and Government organizations account for 1,11,211 and 14,986 applications
respectively in the last twenty years.
Pie charts below show top five IPC class for some of the prominent applicants at the European Patent
Office
EPO
Trends

The chart below shows filings at EPO for the top fifteen institutes. It’s interesting to see that a lot of
universities from US are a part of the top universities filing at EPO.
EPO
Trends

FILINGS BY AUTHORITY: WIPO
Top Applicants & Application Trend
The chart below graphically represents the number of filings by top 30 applicants at World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO).
We identified top patent applicants at WIPO by analyzing 27,808,317(filings for all the countries) patent
applications filed worldwide during the period January 1995 to date. Total applications filed at the
World Intellectual Property Organization during 1995-2015 are 2,534,932. Top patent applicants have
been selected on the basis of their published patent applications. Generally, most patent jurisdictions
publish a patent application 18 months after its earliest effective filing date, after which it is considered
to be in the public domain.

In 2014;1,69,379 inventions were filed for application with the European Patent Office as compared to
2013 wherein there were 2,00,253 application and 2012 with 19,895 applications. Applications grew by
approximately 9% in 2013 and again fell by the nearly the same margin in 2014.Total number of
application grew consistently year on year from 2009 till 2013.
The total numbers of application filed at WIPO have nearly increased fourfold till 2015 as compare to
the number of application in 1995. Driving this strong growth were filings from China and the United
States of America (US), Japan (JP) and Korea (KR).
Among the top commercial organizations Philips leads the number of applications filed with 33,269
applications, followed by Siemens (25,143), Robert Bosch (21,837), Huawei (18,932) and Qualcomm
(16,611). It’s interesting to note that out of the top twenty applicants, as many as ten companies are of
Asian origin. This shows the growing interest of Asian companies in protection their innovations in the
contracted states. With respect to the fields of innovation in 2014, the fields of Electrical Machinery,
Computer Technology and Measurements proved to be particularly innovative.
The chart below shows the filings trend at EPO during the last twenty years. It can be seen that filings
increased at a constant rate after 2002 with a slight dip in the year 2008 and 2009.
WIPO
Trends

Top 10 Countries
The chart below shows number of applications and worldwide share of total number of applications. It
can be seen that US leads the number of applications followed by Japan and Germany. Out of the top
ten offices, 8 received more number of applications in 2013 as compared to hat in 2012. US accounts for
nearly 39% of the total applications followed by Japan (17%). US along with JP amount for the major
portion of application filed in the last twenty years.
Applications by US have been constant since 2011- 2014 (more than 60,000 applications per year).
Applications from China have increased steadily since 2007, whereas those from JP have remained
constant year-on-year.
There was noticeable rise in applications from the some of the other prominent nations such as Republic
of Korea, South Africa, Singapore, India and Switzerland.
WIPO
Trends

such as Transportation, Automobile, Engines, Electrical Machines and so on. Charts below graphically
represent the distribution of application in different sectors. Overall Electrical Engineering is the field
with the maximum number of applications. In total 34% of the total applications have been in the field
of Electrical Engineering followed by Mechanical (23%) and Instruments (22%). The chart below shows
the yearly split in applications filed in all the parent technology domains. Further in the report filings in
the technology sub domains have also been pictorially shown.
WIPO
Trends

The numbers of filings in the field of Electrical Engineering have grown at a constant rate ever since
2006.Chemistry is the field with the least number of applications. Other Field here includes Furniture &
Games, Consumer Goods and Civil Engineering.
Following charts will shed more light into the technology sub domains such as Electrical Machinery,
Audio Visual Technology, Telecommunication, Engines Pumps & Turbines and so on.
The charts below show the filings in technology sub domains.
WIPO
Trends

WIPO
Trends

under Firms as compared to others. The chart below shows filings by firms in the last ten years
Firms account for the maximum number of application in the last twenty years, these accounts for 79%
of the total application filed. Institutes amount to just 8% of the total application and rest are divided in
between Government Organizations and Individuals.
WIPO
Trends

The chart below shows the split of applications for Government Organizations Individuals and Institutes.
WIPO
Trends

PatSeer - Worldwide Innovation Filing Trends 1995-2015

PatSeer - Worldwide Innovation Filing Trends 1995-2015

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PatSeer - Worldwide Innovation Filing Trends 1995-2015