WIPO-Patentstatistik: Neuer Rekord an Schutzrechtanträgen

Patente waren 2011 so begehrt wie nie, denn die laufenden Patentkriege wollen angefüttert werden: Die Weltorganisation für geistiges Eigentum WIPO hat Anfang der Woche ihre jährliche Patentstatistik veröffentlicht. Die USA, Japan und Deutschland führen die Rangliste erneut an, aber vor allem China holt rasant auf. Softwarepatente bleiben weit vorn dabei:

Despite difficult economic conditions, international patent filings under the WIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) set a new record in 2011 with 181,900 applications – a growth of 10.7 % on 2010 and the fastest growth since 2005.1 China, Japan and the United States of America (US) accounted for 82 % of the total growth. Chinese telecommunications company ZTE Corporation was the biggest filer of PCT applications in 2011. ... Among the top filing countries, PCT applications from China (+33.4 %), Japan (+21 %), Canada (+8.3 %), the Republic of Korea (+8 %) and the US (+8 %) saw the fastest growth in 2011. European countries witnessed a mixed performance, with Switzerland (+7.3%), France (+5.8 %), Germany (+5.7 %) and Sweden (+4.6 %) experiencing growth, and the Netherlands (-14 %), Finland (-2.7 %), Spain (-2.7 %) and the United Kingdom (-1 %) seeing declines. ... Digital communications with 11,574 (or 7.1 % of total) published applications remained the field of technology accounting for the largest share of total PCT applications in 2011, followed by electronic machinery (6.9 %), medical technology (6.6 %) and computer technology (6.4 %).