The rapid growth of patent applications

February 1st, 2009

Nanoelectronics is the active patenting field at the moment and has been for many years as the trend in electronics has always been to make things smaller. Table 1 Key Players in Nanotechnology in Health and Personal CareRhian Granleese commentsTo date, cosmetics has been big driver for developments in nanotechnology and potentially many of the inventions in these areas could be applied to pharmaceuticals. The focus for nanoenergy is energy storage and production using mainly electrical methods.

Europe is represented by Germany 38, France 32 and applications to the European Patent Office. The total number of priority filings in Europe was just per cent of those in the USA. The comparative dearth of patent applications for nanotechnology in Europe of 2. 4 billion was behind that of the USA at 3. 6 billion and Japan at 2. 8 billion, funding from the European public purse of 1.

Rhian Granleese, partner at Marks & Clerk report finds dramatic increase in the filing of patent applications for nanotechnology across the globe, highlighting its growing commercial importance. Globally, annual priority filings nearly trebled between and in all three fields covered by the report. 1 However, companies and institutions in Europe are filing far fewer patent applications than their US and Far Eastern counterparts. The report finds that in nanoelectronics, amongst the top thirty players accounting for about half the total number of patent families, only per cent of families were filed by European applicants, compared with per cent by Japanese applicants.

Table 3 Key Players in NanoelectronicsNone of the wellknown conventional energy companies appear in our top 20, despite the fact that many of them are trying to portray themselves as dealing in all forms of energy. Similarly, although many of the applications relate to improvements in battery technologies, the wellknown Western battery manufacturers are also missing from our top 20. It is notable, however, that three of the major Japanese car manufacturers, Toyota, Honda and Mitsubishi, are present, demonstrating their leadership in hybrid motor technology.

Nanoelectronics is the active patenting field at the moment and has been for many years as the trend in electronics has always been to make things smaller. Table 1 Key Players in Nanotechnology in Health and Personal CareRhian Granleese commentsTo date, cosmetics has been big driver for developments in nanotechnology in Europe of 2. 4 billion was behind that of the USA at 3. 6 billion and Japan at 2. 8 billion, funding from the European public purse of 1.