BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2016/12
As in previous years, Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE ranked number one and number three on the list of top filers of international patents. Second place went to the American electronics giant Qualcomm. The Top 50 list of patent filers included six Chinese firms, which together represented about a third of all Chinese PCT patent filings. China’s innovation activity covers a broad front.
The large number of patent application does not tell the full story, however, as the quality and significance of the innovation of Chinese companies is often lower than that shown in the filings of companies in more advanced countries. Nevertheless, China’s emergence as a technological powerhouse is indisputable. For example, China already accounts for 44 % of all high-tech exports from Asia.
Other BRIC countries lagged far behind China in patent activity. In 2015, India filed just over 1,400 patent applications (about the same as in 2014), Russia about 800 (-16 %) and Brazil about 550 (-6 %). Finnish firms in 2015 filed about 1,600 international patent applications, a drop of 12 % from 2014.
Countries filing the most PCT patent applications
Source: WIPO