International Patent Filings Dominated By Asia

China, Japan, and South Korea show dominating growth in international patent filings and exhibit a significant shift of economic, competitive and scientific power to Asia, based on data released in February 2011 by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

The World Intellectual Property Organization said China had increased its international patent filings in 2010 by 56.2% to 12,337, tripling its 2006 figure and elevating China into fourth place in global rankings.  These figures include a 33% increase in patent filings in electrical engineering and 220% increase in nanotechnology.

South Korea, ranked 5th with 9,686 filings, grew 20.5%, and Japan, a country with a mature economy, still attained growth of 7.9% with 32,156 applications to place 2^nd, and Germany, with 17,171 applications, ranked 3^rd on the list.

The United States is stilled ranked number one, although it experienced a drop of 1.7% to 44,855 filings, some 20% below its 2007 level.  International patent applications by universities are still dominated by U.S. schools.  Leading the pack is the University of California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Texas, and University of Florida.  Under this ranking, the University of Tokyo follows closely at number 5.

The top 10 companies by filings include 3 from Japan, 2 from China, and 1 from South Korea, with 1 U.S. and 3 European firms completing the list.

Looking at the data from a corporate perspective, Japanese consumer electronics group Panasonic Corporation (NYSE: PC; TYO: 6752) again led the list with 2,154 applications, and China’s telecommunications giant, ZTE Corporation (SZSE: 000063; SEHK: 0763), jumped into 2^nd place with 1,863 applications.  U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was in 3^rd place with 1,677 filings, and Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is in 4^th place with 1,528 applications.  LG Electronics Inc. (KRX: 066570; LSE: LGLD) of Korea takes the 7^th place with 1,298 applications.  Of the top 10 corporate applicants, 6 are from Asia.  The U.S. juggernaut Google Inc. is ranked only 80^th with 171 applications.

Under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the WIPO offers inventors and industry an easier route for obtaining patent protection internationally.  By filing one “international” patent application under the PCT, protection of an invention may be established simultaneously in each of the current 142 treaty member countries.

Both applicants and patent offices of PCT member states benefit from the uniform formality requirements, the international search and preliminary examination reports, and the centralized international publication provided by the PCT system.

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The Galaxy S features a 4-inch, ultra bright super AMOLED high resolution mult-touch screen that can display full high-definition video. The phone is powered by Google’s Android 2.2 operating system and is equipped with a 5 megapixel camera. The phone also supports Flash based web content and games.

Docomo’s President & CEO Ryuji Yamada hopes that the Galaxy S will give the iPhone a serious run for its money and expects that Galaxy sales will easily match the half million units sales by that of Sony Ericsson’s Experia, another smartphone introduced earlier by Docomo in April.

NTT Docomo is a leading mobile operator as well as a developer of cutting-edge mobile technologies in the world. In Japan, Docomo serves over 56 million customers, of which 48 million subscribe to its i-mode services, the world’s most popular mobile email/Internet platform, and 54 million customers subscribe to its FOMA, the world’s original 3G mobile service based on W-CDMA technology.

In November 2008, NTT Docomo acquired a 26% stake in Tata Teleservices which ranked number 6 in the Indian telecom industry. India is the world’s fastest growing cellular market, with a rate of increase of as many as 9 million new customers a month. The newly formed Tata Docomo venture was launched in India in June 2009 and had signed up about 33 million users by the end of June 2010.

NTT Docomo is listed in Tokyo (TYO: 9437), New York (NYSE: DCM), and London (LSE: NDCM). NTT Docomo is a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation. Docomo announced on October 28, 2010 that its net income rose 22 percent to 167.6 billion yen ($2.1 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30.

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