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TREND
PATENTS
moving east
The number of patent applications is increasing
rapidly in Eastern European countries and East
Asia. Since 2000 the number of applications fi led
in a year has increased 9 percent in South Korea
and 26 percent in China.
TEXT PER ÖQVIST
“AMONG THE 20 COMPANIES that
applied for the most patents in 2006,
seven were in Asia, much more than in
the past,” says Boel Lagerwall, head of
marketing at Awapatent, one of Europe’s
leading consultancy fi rms in intellectual
property rights.
In both Eastern Europe and East Asia,
where products from the West have long
been copied illegally, interest in international
patent systems is growing. People
there are increasingly careful about following
international conventions be-
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cause they want to attract foreign capital,
and also because they are now more and
more at the forefront of developments
themselves and want to protect their own
products from illegal copying.
More Chinese companies’ products
can compete internationally. Among
the big Chinese brands are Lenovo, the
world’s third-largest pc manufacturer,
and tcl, the world’s largest tv manufacturer
by volume.
“More than 200,000 patents were applied
for in China in 2006, most of them
by Chinese companies,” Lagerwall says.
In South Korea, 166,189 patents were
applied for.
“China says it wants to be in the lead in
patent applications in a couple of years,”
says Solgun Drevik, a product developer
at sca whose name is on more than 50 of
the company’s patents.
A growing number of patent applications
in growth markets are being fi led
by Western companies, who now want
to protect their patents globally. These
companies applied earlier for patents
only in Europe and the us.
The us accounts for one out of three
patent applications in the world, almost
twice as many as second-place Japan. Europe
is still strong, with six of the top 10
countries in terms of patent applications
in 2006. Next, in descending order, come
Germany, South Korea,, France, Britain,
the Netherlands, China,Switzerland and
Sweden.
Growth markets account for only 8.3
percent of patent applications, but the
number is quickly rising. Besides China
and South Korea, other countries experiencing
increases include India, South Africa,
Brazil, Mexico and Singapore. ▲
100 PATENTS A YEAR
■ “At SCA, we apply for around 100
patents a year, with 50 or 60 of
these in Personal Care,” says Paul
Winblad, head of patents at SCA.
“We get temporary protection via
the Patent Cooperation Treaty for
30 months. Then we continue in a
few strategically important
countries.”
SCA applies for patents in 14
countries a year on average. Simple
inventions that are easy to copy on
a broader level may be covered by
patents in 30 or 40 countries.
Expensive, complex inventions are
protected in only four or fi ve major
markets, often Germany, France,
Britain, the US and Japan or China,
and sometimes in Australia as well.
Nine out of 10 applications result
in a patent because these have been
so carefully prepared. Some 30
patent engineers and administrators
are employed full-time to handle
patent applications and related
fi elds like pattern protection.