During the COVID-19 pandemic there was fear within the IP community, and especially among patent practitioners, that filings of new patent applications, specifically PCT applications, would go down.
As we described together with Jim Boff (UK) and Dietmar Haug (DE) in the article “PCT filings during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to grow – but for how long?” published in AIPPI´s Newsletter back in August 2021 a sharp drop was not experienced during the initial stages of the pandemic.
But what happened after then?
Overall filings
Total filings using the PCT system have continued to grow during the past two years as well.
During 2021 applicants filed 277.500 applications using the PCT route marking an increase of 0.9% compared to the previous year. In turn, during 2022 278.100 applications were lodged using the PCT system, which implied a 0.3% increase compared to the filings corresponding to 2021.
As can be seen the upward trend has not been altered during the past two years.
Country of origin
Taking into account the country of origin, during 2021 PCT applications were filed in 129 countries while during 2022 the number went up to 134 countries.
Considering that the PCT currently has 157 members, this means that an application was filed in the majority of them. In other words, at least one application was filed in 85% of the PCT member states.
Main filing countries
The analysis of the figures showing the main filing countries shows no surprises.
During 2021 applicants from China filed 69.540 applications, those from the United States followed with 59.570 and in the third place we find Japan with 50.260 applications filed. The top five filing countries which accounted for 78.3% of all applications lodged is completed with Germany and Korea.
2022 shows the first three countries in the same positions with the following figures: China 70.015 applications, United States 59.056 and Japan 50.345. The top filing countries, among which we also find Germany and Korea, produced 78.7% of all applications filed.
National phase entries by RO (Receiving Office)
As to the applications filed with each Receiving Office, as one would expect, the IP5 dominate the picture.
During 2021 73.434 PCT applications were filed in China, 56.494 in the United States, 49.137 in Japan, 38.407 were submitted with the EPO and 20.570 were lodged in Korea. During this year the top 10 countries accounted for 94.1% of the applications filed.
In turn, during 2022 the China Intellectual Property Administration received 74.420 applications, the United States Patent and Trademark Office 55.330, the Japan Patent Office 48.826, the European Patent Office 38.854 and the Korean Intellectual Property Office 24.964. The number of applications filed with the top 10 Receiving Offices went down slightly to 93.8%.
Main filing applicants
When it comes to the main filing applicants, the top five companies are also regularly featured in the rankings. During 2021, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. filed 6952 applications, Qualcomm Incorporated 3931, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 3041, LG Electronics Inc. 2885 and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation 2673.
In 2022 we see the same names but for Ericsson who entered the ranking in the fifth place: Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. with 7689 applications, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. with 4387, Qualcomm Incorporated with 3855, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation with 2320 and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson with 2158.
In is worth mentioning that the vast majority of the applications field by the main filing applicant correspond to the field of digital communication technologies and computer technology.
Main filing universities
Most of the universities featured in the top positions of this ranking are mainly from the United States and China. Also, a number of them are from Korea, Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
During 2021 University of California filed 551 applications, Zhejiang University 306, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 227, Tsinghua University 201 and Leland Stanford Junior University 194.
2022 saw some changes in the top five filers for this category. The figures were as follows: University of California, 552 applications, Zhejiang University 309, Suzhou University 303, Leland Stanford Junior University 217 and The Board of Regents of the University of Texas System 187.
Compared to other rankings included in the PCT Yearly Review Reports the university rankings show more volatility as one can find new names and sharp changes in position more often.
Applications by technological field
The dominant technological fields and industrial sectors where the most applications were filed during 2021 were: computer technology with 26.092 applications, digital communication with 23.603, medical technology with 18.552, electrical machinery, apparatus and energy with 18.224 and pharmaceuticals with 12.147.
Taking into account 2017 as the base year, the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology fields showed the fastest growth rates with 12.8 % and 9.5% respectively.
2022 shows a similar ranking with electric machinery, apparatus and energy and medical technology switching positions. The full list is as follows: computer technology with 28.224 applications filed, digital communication with 25.664, electrical machinery, apparatus and energy with 19.353, medical technology with 19.013 and pharmaceuticals with 12.555.
Compared to 2021, digital communications and computer technology were the fields where growth was the most vigorous: 8.7% and 8.1% respectively.
Interestingly, during the last two years of the pandemic both medical technology and pharmaceuticals are featured in the dominant technological fields.
We believe this ranking is very interesting as it shows in what technological fields and industrial sectors we should expect to see the highest filing numbers in the next years.
Conclusion
While the upward trend in PCT filings has experienced a slowdown in the last two years as shown by the figures included in the present report, the fact that there has been no decrease in the number of applications filed despite the economic difficulties is a positive sign.
There is of course reason to believe the pandemic is probably one of the main causes for this deceleration. Nonetheless, if the numbers do not pick up in the next years it will be interesting to analyze a longer series to determine whether this less vigorous growth indeed obeys just to the pandemic or whether there are multiple causes behind this phenomenon.
The PCT Committee will continue to analyze thoroughly future PCT Yearly Review reports concerning the usage of the PCT system when released by WIPO.