PDF, PCT Yearly Review - WIPO

18
PCT APPLICANTS
This subsection presents the distribution of PCT applicants, the top ranking of all applicants and university
applicants and the share of foreign inventors named in PCT applications. For statistical purposes, the PCT
applicant is considered to be the first-named applicant in the application and, for technical reasons, only
applicants that are not individuals are considered (except for A.11). For confidentiality reasons, statistics on
PCT applicants are based on published PCT applications rather than all PCT applications filed. Under the PCT
rules, a PCT application should be published promptly after the expiration of 18 months from the priority
date. Since most applicants prefer to file PCT applications at the end of the 12-month priority period, the
statistics based on publication date have a delay of approximately 6 months compared to those based on
international filing date.
A.7 Distribution of PCT Applicants
Applicants can be companies, universities, government institutions and individuals. In 2010, about 41,900
applicants were mentioned in published PCT applications, representing about 200 applicants fewer
compared to 2009. Figure A.7 shows the distribution of PCT applicants in relation to published PCT
applications in 2010.
Figure A.7: Distribution of applicants and published PCT applications
100
90
80
Share of applications
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Share of applicants
Source: WIPO Statistics Database
> About half of all PCT applicants owned 10% of all published PCT applications. The so-called Pareto principle
applies to the distribution of PCT applicants as 80% of all applicants are responsible for roughly
20% of all applications.
> The PCT system is intensively used by a small number of filers: 42% of total published PCT applications
belong to only 1% of all PCT applicants.