DEVELOPMENT: Patents from Nations of the South See Upward Trend

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Mar 5 2002 (IPS) - The number of patent applications filed by inventors and researchers from developing countries grew more in 2001 than the number of requests coming from industrialised countries, reports the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

This fact means the countries of the developing South are joining a movement that is advancing rapidly towards globalisation, says WIPO assistant director general, Roberto Castelo.

In 1996, patent applications presented to WIPO by developing countries represented just 0.5 percent of the world total, but last year the level of participation reached 5.2 percent.

The number of patents requested in 2001 rose 14.3 overall compared to the previous year, but the greatest increase was among developing countries, reaching 70.6 percent.

The boom in patents in nations of the South coincides with a general expansion, though not as accelerated, of the global market. This unprecedented volume of patent requests has created problems in processing the paperwork, admit WIPO officials.

A conference on the international patent system, slated for Mar 25-27 in Geneva, home to WIPO, will serve as a forum for discussing the challenges confronting the current system for international presentation of intellectual property, which facilitates obtaining patents in each of a large number of countries.

The system, established under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), channelled 103,947 applications through WIPO in 2001, a 14.3-percent increase over the total for 2000.

But developing countries saw the biggest increases. China filed 188.4 percent more requests than the previous year, India 102.6 percent, South Korea, 53.1 percent and Mexico 50.7 percent more.

“Last year’s performance of the PCT in developing countries underlines that the intellectual property system is of value to countries committed to promoting sustained economic growth and improved living standards,” stated WIPO director general Kamil Idris.

“In the absence of this system, applicants would have been required to file separate applications nationally or regionally, involving considerable cost and effort,” added Idris, a Sudanese national.

The increased volume of patent requests has benefited also from WIPO’s creation of a digital patent library.

The on-line catalogue makes existing patents available so that researchers at universities and companies in developing countries, or anyone dedicated to research and development, have access to the latest information, free of cost, and in real time.

The patent is essentially a form of protection for the creator of a new invention, and generally lasts for 20 years.

Now, with the WIPO library accessible by Internet, developing countries have a tool that allows them to cut research investment costs and a more complete and updated base, said Castelo, a Brazilian national.

The developing countries that requested most patents last year were, in descending order, South Korea, China, South Africa, India Singapore and Brazil.

Among the institutions from the developing world, the company applying for most patents was China Biowindow, a biotech firm, followed by the India-based Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, which operates 40 research institutes in all technical fields.

Next in line were the South Korean transnational Samsung, an electronics manufacturer, and the University of Fudan, in China.

Developing countries have discovered that the PCT is a low-cost way to promote global protection for their patents in the 116 countries that have ratified the accord to date.

Castelo highlighted South Korea’s performance, at the head of the list of developing countries in the number of patents, saying it is largely the result of the government’s policy of the last two decades to invest heavily in research and development.

But in spite of the growing presence of the developing world in the WIPO system, the top participants are still the industrialised nations.

U.S. inventors and industries are first on the list, with 38.5 percent of the nearly 104,000 patent requests filed with WIPO in 2001. Their colleagues in Germany follow with 13.1 percent, Japan with 11.4 percent, Britain with six percent and France with 4.4 percent.