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Reflecting the rising status of China in the global economy, the nation's applications for patents has risen by 210% since 2005. China has surpassed France to become the fifth nation in patent filings, a lot of it due to the nascent home-grown IT sector.
At the graph shows, the United States recorded a decline in patents applied for in 2009. America hit a patent application peak at 54,000 in 2007 and the decline is (one greatly hopes) a temporary decline due to the U.S. recession which started in December 2007. Naturally, when the economy is down there are less business start-ups and less funds for R%D thus the decline it a short-term predictable fact. It was not an exclusive American decline, international patent applications declined by 4.5% in 2009 compared to '08.
For example, the filing rate dropped by 11.4% in the USA and by 11.2% in Germany in 2009. Declines were also experienced in the United Kingdom (-3.5%), Switzerland (-1.6%), Sweden (-11.3%), Italy (-5.8%), Canada (-11.7%), Finland (-2.2%), Australia (-7.5%) and Israel (-17.2%).
So it is a global slump due to a recession rather than anything specific to America - which, as can see, it still the world leader in patents and accounts for roughly 1/3 of the world total.
Patent recording rather roughly follow world GDPs - U.S. is the biggest economy and is #1 in patents, Japan is #2 in both cases and Germany #4 in GDP and #3 in patents.
Some nations have impressive showings that surpass their populations perceived ability. Take Sweden with 10million and more patients than Russia with over 100million and, say, Spain with several times the population. The Netherlands is also a strong European showing.
Developing countries are increasing their patent applications:
The largest number of international applications received from developing countries in 2009 came from the Republic of Korea (8,066) and China (7,946) followed by India (761), Singapore (594), Brazil (480), South Africa (389), Turkey (371), Malaysia, (218), Mexico (185) and Barbados (96).
The developing world has continued to register an encouragingly increasing share.
The nations with the lowest number of patients in 2009: Albania, Benin, Bolivia, Bostwana, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Congo, Cook Islands, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, and many others (you can see the entire list here). All these nations (and others) recorded 0.
