Euro-Counsels

The most remarkable growth rates came from countries in north east Asia for the third year running and represented over a quarter (25.3%) of all international applications under the PCT. In 2006, the list was topped by applications from the United States of America (USA), Japan, Germany, Republic of Korea and France.

“The number of international patent applications continues to rise with impressive growth from north east Asian countries. Increasingly developing country economies are capitalizing on the tools of the intellectual property system for wealth creation,” said Mr. Francis Gurry, Deputy Director General who oversees the work of the PCT. "Innovation has been traditionally dominated by Europe and North America. New centers of innovation – in particular in northeast Asia - are emerging and this is transforming both the geography of the patent system and of future global economic growth” he added.

The Republic of Korea, which experienced 26.6% growth in 2006 as compared to 2005, overtook the United Kingdom and France to become the 4th biggest country of origin of PCT filings, and applicants from China, whose use grew by 56.8%, dislodged Switzerland and Sweden to take the position of 8th largest country of origin.

With just under 50,000 PCT applications, inventors and industry from the United States of America represented 34.1% (a 6.1% increase over 2005) of all applications in 2006. Applicants from Japan, who unseated their German counterparts in 2003 for the number two spot, maintained their second place position with 18.5% of the total number of applications, representing an 8.3% increase. Inventors and industry from Germany held third position with 11.7% of all applications in 2006, representing a 5.8% increase, followed by users in the Republic of Korea (4.1% of all applications and a 26.6% increase) and France (4.1% of all applications and a 2.8% increase). Among the fifteen top filing countries, others to achieve double-digit rates of growth were Italy (11th highest filer, with a rate of growth of 16.1% in 2006) and Israel (15th highest filer, with a rate of growth of 18.3% in 2006).

Top Applicants

The top 5 applicants remain unchanged. The Dutch multinational Philips Electronics N.V. was again the largest applicant (2,495 applications published in 2006), followed by Matsushita (Japan) (2,344), Siemens (Germany) (1,480) , Nokia (Finland) (1,036), and Bosch (Germany) (962). These were followed by 3M (USA) (727), BASF (Germany) (714), Toyota (Japan) (704),Intel (USA) (690), and Motorola (USA) (637). Among the 20 top filing companies, seven were from the USA, four from Japan and three from Germany.

Several companies join the top 20 list, including Huawei (China), up 24 places to 13th, Fujitsu (Japan), up 9 places to 15th, LG Electronics (Republic of Korea) up 12 to 16th, and Hewlett-Packard (USA) up 5 to 18th.

Developing Countries

International patent applications received from developing countries in 2006 saw a 27.6% increase as compared to 2005, representing 8.2% of all international patent applications filed. This is largely due to the filings from the Republic of Korea (5,935)and China (3,910), followed by India (627), Singapore (402), South Africa (349), Brazil (265) and Mexico (150). Developing countries make up 79% of the membership of the PCT, representing 106 of the 136 countries that have signed up to the treaty to date.

The top ten users of the PCT from developing countries include: Huawei Technologies (China), LG Electronics (Republic of Korea), Samsung Electronics, (Republic of Korea), LG Chem (Republic of Korea), Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (Republic of Korea), ZTE Corporation (China), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (Singapore), Ranbaxy Laboratories (India), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India) and NHN Corporation (Republic of Korea).

Fields of Technology

The greatest number of PCT applications published in 2006 were in telecommunications (10.5%), pharmaceuticals (10.4%), and information technology (10.4%). The fastest growing technology areas are semiconductors (28% increase), information technology (22%) and pharmaceuticals (21%).

The main fields of technology in which PCT applications were published in 2006 are broken down according to a classification based on the International Patent Classification (IPC) - a system designed to facilitate the retrieval of technical information found in patent documents - and are outlined in Annex I. (for further information on IPC codes, please consult: http://www.wipo.int/classifications/ipc/).