The top ten companies in China in 2010 based on basic patent publications are given in the graphic below. Of these, three each are Chinese and Japanese respectively, followed by US (two), and Germany and South Korea (one each).  GM Global Tech Operations Inc tops the list with over 600 basics in 2010.

Read the full report: Chinese Patenting: Report on the Current State of Innovation in China

The graphic below shows the number of patent applications with local priority and indicates the number of domestic applications for each region.  China is again the exception with dramatic growth in domestic applications from less than 90,000 in 2006 to nearly 230,000 in 2010.

Read the full report: Chinese Patenting: Report on the Current State of Innovation in China

The graphic below gives the projected growth in published patent applications for these regions and shows that China is set to lead the patent information landscape this year, 2011.

Read the full report: Chinese Patenting: Report on the Current State of Innovation in China

The graphic below shows the total volumes of published patent applications from the five patent offices from 2006 to 2010. Japan has the highest volumes year to year during the period, but its lead narrows as the U.S. catches up.  Europe and Korea have similar volumes and growth trends. The striking difference among these regions is China – it is experiencing the most rapid growth and is poised to lead the pack in the very near future.

Read the full report: Chinese Patenting: Report on the Current State of Innovation in China

 

In 2010, the patent offices of Japan, U.S., Europe (EPO), Republic of Korea and China accounted for 77% of all new invention patent applications published worldwide. Japan, Korea and China alone accounted for 54.8% of these. An analysis of patent volumes over the last five years from these five major offices shows that inventions from China have been growing at a faster rate than any other region.

There are several attributes that can be measured to identify and track innovation trends for a particular region:

• Published patent application total volumes. This gives a measure of the total patenting activity in a region both by domestic and foreign concerns seeking protection for their inventions in order to manufacture, use or sell the invention or products in the region.
• Local priority patent applications volumes. This gives a picture of home-grown innovation by providing a measure of how many inventions claim priority in the region. In general terms, the priority country is the country from where the invention originated.
• International patent application volumes. This provides information about the extent to which a country is seeking to extend the market for its innovation beyond its domestic borders.

China has just completed the 11th Five Year plan for National Economic and Social Development. This plan highlighted innovation as a focus along with social harmony, environment, macro-economic balance, and governing the market. The corresponding science and technology plan articulated the goal of China becoming an “innovation-oriented” society by the year 2020. Many of the developments of the last 5 years have illustrated how far China has moved towards that goal:

• China has become the third-largest patent office in the world after the US and Japan by annual invention patent applications
• Published applications have increased by 16.7% per year over the period from 171,000 in 2006 to nearly 314,000 in 2010
• China’s global ranking based on citations in international science papers has moved from 13th in 2006 to 8th in 2010
• China now ranks 29th as measured by the Global Innovation Index and is the only developing country among the top 30 innovators.
• In 2008, China invested 457 billion yuan (US$65.8 billion) in R&D, or 1.52% of its increasing GDP
• Significant recent technological achievements include the opening of the world’s longest sea bridge at 26.4 miles long and the ongoing development of world’s largest high-speed railway system with around 10,500 miles completed or under construction.

Read the full report: Chinese Patenting: Report on the Current State of Innovation in China

The 12th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development was released earlier this year. In this plan, the Chinese government lays out its strategic vision and direction for the development of China over the next five years up to 2016. A key strategic priority in the plan is for China to transition from “Made in China” to “Designed in China.” This is part of a long term strategy to transform China from a manufacturing to an innovation economy.

To support this goal, there are plans to further develop China’s intellectual property rights system and for heavy investment in science and technology education and R&D through development in seven “Strategic Emerging Industries” (SEIs). These are:

• New Energy – Nuclear, hydro, wind and solar power
• Energy conservation and environmental protection – Energy reduction targets
• Biotechnology – Drugs and medical devices
• New materials – Rare earths and high end semiconductors
• Next-generation IT – Broad band networks, internet security infrastructure, network convergence, “Internet of things”
• High–end equipment manufacturing – Aerospace and telecomm equipment
• Clean energy vehicles – battery cell technology; target to produce 1 million electric vehicles per annum by 2015

There are plans to spend more than RMB 4 trillion on these industries during the next five years, with a view to increasing the SEI’s share of GDP from around 5 percent today to 8 percent by 2015. The drive for domestic innovation continues with the implementation this year of the 12th National Five-Year Plan on Science & Technology Development which also lays out a number of ambitious goals for the further development of China as a technologically advanced nation:

• Increase in R&D expenditure as a proportion of GDP from 1.75% in 2010 to 2.2% in 2015;
• Improvement in ranking of citations in international science papers from 8th to 5th;
• Increase in invention patent ownership per 10,000 head of population from 1.7 to 3.3

Measures to support this growth in indigenous innovation include:

• Research & Development investment in science and technology aimed at achieving key breakthroughs in targeted technology subsectors, such as core electronic devices, integrated circuits, life sciences, space, marine, earth sciences and nanotechnology.
• Intellectual Property improvements through efforts to strengthen creation, use, protection and management of IP rights.
• Incentives through fiscal and financial policies that support high-tech industry, including updating management of research funding and systems for venture capital investment.

Read the full report: Chinese Patenting: Report on the Current State of Innovation in China

Today we announced the world’s 100 most innovative organizations with the launch of the Thomson Reuters 2011 Top 100 Global Innovator program, an initiative that analyzes patent data and related metrics in a proprietary methodology to identify the companies and institutions that lead the world in innovation activity.

A comparison of market data for 2011 Top 100 Global Innovator companies (those that report such data) shows they added more than 400,000 new jobs in 2010 over 2009, three percent more than the prior year and greater than the percentage increase in growth experienced by the S&P 500 for the same period.  Forty percent of the companies are from the U.S., 31 percent are from Asia, and 29 percent are from Europe.

Methodology

There are many ways to measure innovation.  We believe that our peer-reviewed methodology is unique in its unbiased approach, using the best data currently available to measure both the breadth and influence of corporate innovation.  Our methodology is based on four principle criteria: patent approval success rate, global reach of a patent portfolio, influence as measured by patent citations (removing self cites) and overall patent volume.  By analyzing corporate patent portfolios in this manner, we are able to identify the sweet spot of innovation where pure R&D meets corporate strategy for protecting intellectual property.  While it is possible that this approach excludes many companies that are major innovators in their respective fields, it is the best measure we have to objectively evaluate corporate commitment to innovation and protection of intellectual property.

Data for the Top 100 Innovator program was aggregated and analyzed using published patent information from 2005 – 2010.  All company names listed are those used in published patent data through 2010. Learn more about our methodology here.

Additional Information:

List of Top 100 Innovators.

Download the Full Report.

Read the press release. 

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The IP Solutions business of Thomson Reuters announced the addition of patent records from the patent-issuing authorities of Poland, Hong Kong and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional office registering patents from member states, which include the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, State of Qatar, State of Bahrain, State of Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Sultanate of Oman, to its Derwent World Patents Index® (DWPISM) database. This comprehensive collection of editorially enhanced patent documents from 47 global issuing authorities also includes English language abstracts and titles, making it easier for researchers to quickly find the information they need to make informed decisions regarding protected technologies in these key global markets.  Read the full press release.