WIPO Marks International Patent Milestone

by Ulrika lomas, LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

20 April 2011

The two millionth international patent application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) of the World International Property Organization (WIPO) was filed recently by US-based mobile technology company Qualcomm.

The PCT system, first launched in 1978, is designed specifically to promote effective information sharing among patent offices, to avoid duplication of work and to facilitate access to valuable patent information. It makes it easier for companies and inventors to seek patent rights in multiple countries. A single international patent application under the PCT has legal effect in all 142 countries bound by the treaty.

PCT applicants receive valuable information about the potential patentability of their inventions, and have more time than under the traditional patent system to decide in which of the PCT countries to continue pursuing patent protection. The PCT system consolidates and streamlines patenting procedures, postponing the payment of sizeable costs and providing applicants with a sound basis for important decision-making.

WIPO Director General Francis Gurry welcomed the news and noted that the “rapidly growing use of the PCT over the past six years – the time it took to go from one to two million international patent applications - reflects continuously increasing investments in innovation and the growing importance of protecting innovation outputs in international markets”.

He noted that, “by comparison it took 26 years to receive the first one million PCT applications,” adding that the “significant growth in PCT membership has increased the attractiveness of the system and thereby contributed to healthy filing growth”.

Until a few years ago, the largest users of the PCT system originated mostly in the US or Europe. However, there has been a significant change in the geography of innovation with East Asia emerging as the region that today accounts for the largest number of international patent applications. In 2010, use of the PCT increased by over 56% in China (which is now the fourth-largest country of origin of PCT applications in the world), 20% in the Republic of Korea (5th), and almost 8% in Japan (2nd).

The overall top 20 filers from 2006 to 2010 have been : Panasonic (Japan), Philips Electronics (Netherlands), Huawei Technologies (China), Robert Bosch (Germany), Siemens (Germany), Qualcomm (US), Toyota (Japan) , LG Electronics (South Korea), Ericsson (Sweden), Sharp (Japan), Nokia (Finland), NEC Corporation (Japan), BASF (Germany), Fujitsu (Japan), 3M (US), ZTE (China), Motorola (US), Microsoft (US), Mitsubishi Electric (Japan), and Samsung (South Korea).

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