UK Patent Applications


Standard YouTube Licence

 Jane Lambert

The World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO"), European Patent Office ("EPO") and the Intellectual Property Office ("IPO") have all published statistics on patenting activity in 2019.  According to the IPO's Facts and figures: Patent, trade mark, design and hearing data: 2019, the IPO received 19,250 patent applications in 2019 which was down from 20,931 the previous year.  Just over 12,000 of those applications came from the UK compared to 12,843 the previous year.  However, there was a welcome 6.9% increase in the number of applications for European patents (6,156 in 2029 compared to 5,761 in 2018 (see European patent applications).  There was also modest growth in the number of international patent applications from the UK (5,786 in 2019 compared to 5,634 the year before (see Annex 1: International patent applications by origin (PCT System))).

The modest increase in the number of international and European patent applications has made no changes to the UK's position in the international and European patent league tables.   The UK lies 7th in the world behind China (58,990), the USA (57,840), Japan (52,660), Germany (19,353), South Korea (19,085) and France (7,934).  In Europe, the UK is 9th behind the USA (46,201), German (26,805), Japan (22,686), China (12,247), France (10,163), South Korea (8,287), Switzerland (8,249) and the Netherlands (6,954).  It should be noted that China and South Korea are leaping up the European league with a 29.2% increase in the number of patent applications since 2018 and 14.1% in the case of South Korea.

Internationally, the big news is that China displaced the USA from the top of the PCT applications list for the first time ever.   For some time China has led the world in the number of patent applications with the USA trailing a long way behind but most of those applications were made to China's national patent office.  The significance in toppling the USA from the number 1 spot is that these are applications for inventions that are thought to merit worldwide protection.   It is an indicator that China is climbing up the innovation pole while the USA is slipping down.   Incidentally, the company that made the most applications through the PCT and EPO was Huawei.   Something to be borne in mind by politicians calling for that company to be frozen out of the UK's telecommunications infrastructure.

The IPO's Facts and Figures breaks down applications for UK patents by countries of origin and UK regions.   The UK came top in 2019 with 12,002 followed by the USA (2,151), China (775), Japan (563) and Germany (483).   As for UK regions, London topped the list with 2,579.  It was followed by South East England (1,947), Eastern England (1,642), South West England (1,235), West Midlands (875), North West England (859),  Scotland (734), Yorkshire and the Humber (638), East Midlands (484), Wales (337), North East England (260) and Northern Ireland (193).  Though it came at the bottom of the UK league table, Northern Ireland can congratulate itself in being one of two regions to see an increase in the number of patent applications between 2018 and 2019 and that increase was substantial  (up from 143 in 2018).   The other region was the South East with an increase of 1,944 in 2018 to 1,947 in 2019.

Not too much may be read into any single year's statistics but they are straws in the wind. Anyone wishing to discuss this article or the topics mentioned in it should call my clerk on 07986 948267 or send a message via my contact page.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Copyright in Photographs: Temple Island Collections and Creation Records

Image
In our very first NIPC newsletter which we published in June 1997 I wrote a case note on Mr. Justice Lloyd's decision in  Creation Records Ltd. and Others v News Group Newspapers Ltd   [1997] EMLR 444, [1997] EWHC Ch 370, (1997) 16 Tr LR 544. In that case Mr. Noel Gallagher of Oasis and others applied for an interlocutory injunction to restrain The Sun from offering for sale and selling a poster of Oasis that featured a photo of an elaborate set that included a white Rolls Royce in a country club swimming pool. The Sun's photograph was very similar to the photograph that appeared on an Oasis album cover. The similarity arose because The Sun's photographer shot the same scene at roughly the same time and from the same angle as Mr. Gallagher's photographer but he did not reproduce any part of Oasis's print or negative. The learned judge held that the plaintiffs had no arguable case for infringement of copyright though he accepted that they had an arguable case for br...
Read more

"What is meant by "Due Cause" in s.10 (3) of the Trade Marks Act? The Red Bull Case

Image
Amsterdam   Source Wikipedia According to Wikipedia  Red Bull is the most popular energy drink in the world, with 5.2 billion cans sold in 2012. Its manufacturer, Red Bull GmbH , has registered the RED BULL mark has registered those words and their accompanying logo as word and device marks in trade mark registries around the world including the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property ( "BOIP" ) . The company registered that sign with BOIP for non-alcoholic drinks in class 32 with effect from 11 July 1983. After decades of massive sales and extensive advertising nobody could argue that that mark has a reputation within the meaning of art 5 (2) of the Trade Marks Directive (Directive 2008/95/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 22 October 2008   to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks OJ 8.11.2008 p 299/25).  S.10 (3) of our Trade Marks Act 1994   implements that provision. There is in the Net...
Read more

Copyright: Creation Records Ltd. v News Group

It is trite law that if two photographers take identical pictures of the same scene at the same time from the same position each of their photographs is an original work and neither infringes the copyright in the other. However, much of the skill of a photographer lies in his choice of subject and the arrangement of the scene. The question whether copyright subsists independently in such an arrangement arose in Creation Records Ltd. v News Group Newspapers Ltd . (1997) The Times 27 April.   The Facts A swimming pool at a country club was drained and various props including a white Rolls Royce motor car assembled for a photograph of a well-known group of musicians for reproduction on their album cover. Although the public was not admitted to the session certain fans of the group who happened to be there were allowed to photograph the scene before official pictures were taken. A freelance photographer who was booked into the club photographed the scene during the session. One of his pict...
Read more