Jason Ford

Patent filing declines

News

International patent filings under WIPO’s Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) fell by 4.5 per cent in 2009 with sharper than average declines experienced by some industrialised countries and growth in a number of East Asian countries.

Provisional data indicates that 155,900 international patent applications were filed in 2009 compared to approximately 164,000 applications filed in 2008.

‘The decline in PCT filings is not as sharp as originally anticipated – last year’s results bring us back to just under 2007 levels, when 159,886 international applications were filed,’ said Francis Gurry, WIPO director general.

International patent filings in a number of East Asian countries continued to experience positive growth in spite of the challenging global economic conditions.

Japan experienced a 3.6 per cent growth rate with 29,827 applications; the Republic of Korea (ROK) experienced 2.1 per cent growth with 8,066 applications; and China became the fifth largest PCT user with a strong growth rate of 29.7 per cent, representing 7,946 international applications.

International patent filings experienced a sharper than average decline in a number of industrialised countries.

The filing rate dropped by 11.4 per cent in the US and by 11.2 per cent in Germany in 2009. Declines were also experienced in Britain (-3.5 per cent), Sweden (-11.3 per cent) and Italy (-5.8 per cent).

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