China breaks record on patent applications
Canada remains in 12th place on innovation ranking, says WIPO
Canada is filing more patent applications, but its global ranking stayed relatively static as our innovation was outpaced by countries like China, which became the first to file one million patent applications in a single year, the World Intellectual Property Organization says.
Canada remained 12th in the world for IP filing activity, according to the Geneva-based organization’s latest report released Wednesday, with 36,964 patent applications in 2015, up 4.2 per cent from 35,481 a year earlier.
Meanwhile, China filed 1,010,406 patent applications, up 18.7 per cent from 2014, the report said. That is more than the next three country offices combined: the United States (589,410), Japan (318,721) and the Republic of Korea (213,694).
In total, some 2.9 million patent applications were filed globally last year, up 7.8 per cent from 2014.
“As policy-makers seek to invigorate growth around the world, it is encouraging to report that intellectual property filing activity saw healthy progression in 2015,” said WIPO director general Francis Gurry in a statement. “While China continues to drive global increases, IP use grew in most countries in 2015, reflecting its increasing importance in a globalized knowledge economy.”
Still, Canada outpaced the U.S., where patent applications grew just 1.8 per cent compared with a year earlier.
Excluding patent applications filed in China, applications in the rest of the world grew by only 1.9 per cent last year, the report said.
Canada kept its rank of 16th on trademark applications, with 155,134 filed last year up six per cent from 146,211 in 2014, the WIPO said.
For comparison, a total of 8,445,300 trademark applications were filed, up by 13.7 per cent, with China leading the pack. Chinese innovators filed 2,828,287 trademark applications, up 27.4 per cent from a year earlier.
However, China’s strong growth numbers don’t necessarily signal a wealth of valuable innovation, says Margaret Dalziel, associate professor at the Conrad Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology Centre at the University of Waterloo.
In theory, if these breakthroughs were commercially valuable, Chinese innovators would be filing patents in the U.S., Europe and other major markets, she said.
Of those one-million-plus patent applications, only about four per cent were filed abroad, the WIPO said in the report. For comparison, filings abroad make up roughly 45 per cent of applications from Japan and the U.S.
“The Chinese government declared that they will become more innovative, and they will measure this through patents,” said Dalziel. “So there’s a real push to patent in China. But if you’ve got an invention in China that’s really valuable, well, you’re going to patent it in the United States and Europe, too. And that’s not happening.”
In Canada, there is room for improvement on government policies to support young companies and innovation, Dalziel added. Compared with other countries, Canada is over-invested in research-anddevelopment tax credits, which
We don’t need a marginal effect. We need transformational programs that help companies become more innovative.
have a marginal positive effect, if any.
“We don’t need a marginal effect. We need transformational programs that really help companies become more innovative,” she said.
On the other hand, many of Canada’s newest companies and startups are in fields like software, where research and development and initial capital costs are lower and patent applications aren’t as relevant, Dalziel added.
“You’ve got a policy like tax credits that might have a one- or two- percent effect,” she said. “Meanwhile, the new companies are a totally different type of company than the new companies of just 10 years ago.”