REVIEW OF PATENTING OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Patents in Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

Information technology products, such as computers, telecommunications equipment and software, have become a cornerstone of modern life.  The economies of developed and developing countries have benefited greatly from the growth of information technology industries themselves, as well as the enhanced competitiveness most industrial sectors enjoy as a result of adopting information technology.  Critical to the growth of information technology, however, has been intellectual property rights.  Patents, copyrights, designs, trade secrets and trademarks are all used to protect the significant investments that go into information technology products and guarantee future technological developments in this field.

India is well known for its software industry, which has growth exponentially in a short space of time. According to estimates of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) – the main trade body and chamber of commerce of India’s IT and business process outsourcing industries – the domestic software industry generates annual revenues of around US$60 billion, the bulk of which is exported. The number of ICT-related patents grew steadily from the mid-1990s to 2005, at an average rate of 4.7% a year from 2000. In 2005, more than 50500 international patent applications were filed under the PCT to protect inventions in ICT. The number of ICT-related patents increased more rapidly than the total number of PCT applications: on average, there is a larger proportion of ICT related patents in countries’ patent portfolios. The share of ICT-related patents in total patents taken by countries rose by five percentage points in 2003-05 as compared with the 1995-97 level. This proportion doubled in the BRIICS countries, where 36% of patents filed in 2003-05 were related to ICT. Finland, Singapore, China, the Netherlands, Korea and Japan had a large concentration of ICT related patents compared to all countries, as depicted by the revealed technological advantage index. Over 2003-05, more than 50% of patents taken by China, Finland and Singapore concerned ICT, compared to an average of 35% of total patents.

The United States (35%), Japan (18.6%) and Germany (7.7%) were the leaders in ICT-related patenting under the PCT in 2005. China (4.2%) and Korea (4.6%) were among the top five countries in ICT-related patents. The number of ICT patents has risen strongly in these two countries over the last ten years, with more than 2 000 patents in China and about 2 300 in Korea in 2005. Tokyo is the leading region for ICT-related inventions, contributing to nearly 9 400 ICT patents and 6.8% of all ICT-related patents filed under the PCT. Tokyo is followed by two regions in the United States — San Jose/San Francisco/Oakland in California and New York/Newark/Bridgeport on the east coast. Seoul and the province of Gyeonggi-do in Korea rank fourth, with 4 400 ICT-related patents. The Noord-Brabant region (Netherlands), Ile de France (France) and Oberbayern (Germany) are the top three European regions patenting in ICT. The city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province of China made a spectacular entrance into the top 15 ICT related patenting regions in 2003-05, with 52% of the patents taken for ICT related inventions made in China

Patents in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are identified using the International Patent Classification (IPC) system: one or several classification codes are attributed to the patent during the examination process. For emerging technologies, however, a specific category or class might not yet be incorporated into the patent classification system, which makes it difficult to identify the patents related to these technologies ex post. Patents taken in the ICT sector can be split into four fields, based on the following list of IPC codes:

Telecommunications: G01S,G08C,G09C,H01P,H01Q,H01S3/(025,043,063,067,085,0933,0941,103,133,18,19,25),

H1S5,H03B,H03C,H03D, H03H,H03M,H04B,H04J,H04K,H04L,H04M,H04Q.

Consumer electronics: G11B,H03F,H03G,H03J,H04H,H04N,H04R,H04S.

Computers, office machinery:

B07C,B41J,B41K,G02F,G03G,G05F,G06,G07,G09G,G10L,G11C,H03K,H03L.

Other ICT:

G01B,G01C,G01D,G01F,G01G,G01H,G01J,G01K,G01L,G01M,G01N,G01P,G01R,G01V,G01W,G02B6,

G05B,G08G,G09B,H01B11,H01J(11/,13/,15/,17/,19/,21/,23/,25/,27/,29/,31/,33/,40/,41/,43/,45/),H01L.

PATENTS IN NANOTECHNOLOGY

Nanotechnology is the study and use of the unique characteristics of materials at the nanometer scale, between the classical large-molecule level to which traditional physics and chemistry apply and the atomic level in which the bizarre rules of quantum mechanics take effect. A recent study by Bhaven Sampat estimates that more than 3700 nanotechnology patents were issued in the United States between 2001 and 2003. That’s a significant number of patents for a technology that has so far produced few actual products. But, in fact, there are significant reasons to think that Sampat’s numbers understate the pace of nanotechnology patenting.

The number of published patent applications in the United States that include the relevant terms in their

claims has increased dramatically, as the following table demonstrates.

Table 1. Published U.S. Patent Applications in Nanotechnology

Year

Published U.S. Applications

2001

403

2002

1975

2003

2964

2004

3842

Inventive activities in nanotechnology have increased substantially since the end of the 1990s: at 18%, the average annual growth rate in nanotechnology patents filed under the PCT surpasses that of overall PCT applications (12.1%) for the period 1995-2005. Most countries report a significant increase in their shares of nanotechnology in total national patenting in the mid-2000s as compared with the mid-1990s, although nanotechnology patenting remains relatively limited (1.1% of total patents on average). Efforts undertaken in Japan are highlighted by the rise in the number of nanotechnology patents in its portfolio (from 0.1% of all patents in 1995-97 to 1% in 2003-05). Singapore, Ireland, the United States, Japan and Israel have a higher concentration of nanotechnology patents than other countries, with a revealed technological advantage index in nanotechnology ranking from 2.7 (Singapore) to 1.1 (Israel). The European Union, Japan and the United States have contributed to 84% of all nanotechnology patents. The share of nanotechnology patents for inventions made in Japan tripled between 1995 and 2005, reaching 16.7% of all nanotechnology patents in 2005. Korea has also broadly invested in nanotechnology, and is now the fifth-ranked country in nanotechnology-related patenting.

The time for nanotechnology has come and a classic technological revolution is unfolding. According to the National Science Foundation, by 2015 the annual global market for nano-related goods and services will top $1 trillion, making it one of the fastest growing industries in history.

Although the process of converting basic research in nanoscience into viable market products will be long and difficult, governments across the globe are impressed by nanotechnology’s potential and are staking their claims and doling out billions of dollars, euros and yen for research. In 2002, worldwide government funding of research and development in nanotechnology exceeded $2 billion, with the US government alone spending $604 million (it increased to $774 million in 2003). In fact, funding from the US government has surged almost sevenfold in the last six years, starting at $116 million in 1997 to a budgeted $847 for 2004.

Although the US accounts for almost a third of global nanotechnology spending, about 40 countries have set up similar initiatives. In December 2003, the US Congress passed the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) of 2000 into law and recommended appropriating $3.7 billion for the next four years for the creation of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office along with funding for various federal nanotechnology initiatives and programs.

The European Union has earmarked $1 billion from 2002 to 2006, while Japan has increased funding from $120 million in 1997 to nearly $750 million in 2002. Note that it is impossible to accurately determine the total funding in nanotechnology since these figures do not include private funding. Some additional statistics from Nanotech Report 200322 are summarized below:

Public and private companies will spend close to $3 billion worldwide on nanotechnology R and D in 2003.

The US government has appropriated $2 billion for nanotechnology since 2000, putting it on track to be the largest US government funded science initiative since the Apollo Mission.

Presently, more than 700 companies are involved in nanotechnology.
40,000 US scientists are currently capable of working in nanotechnology.
In the past four years, more than 1,700 small tech jobs have been created from venture capital funding.

$900 million in venture capital funding has gone to nanotechnology startups since 1999, with $386 million invested in 2002.

Nanotechnology patents

To reflect the increasing interest and importance of nanotechnology in patents, the EPO, the JPO and the USPTO have made intensive efforts to improve their respective classification systems and to collect all nanotechnology-related patents within a single class. The EPO defines nanotechnology as follows: the term nanotechnology covers entities with a controlled geometrical size of at least one functional component below 100nm in one or more dimensions susceptible to make physical, chemical or biological effects available which are intrinsic to that size. It covers equipment and methods for controlled analysis, manipulation, processing, fabrication or measurement with a precision below 100nm. In 2003, a nanotechnology working group was created in the EPO to establish a definition and to identify nanotechnology patents through keyword searches, consultation with EPO experts in the field, and peer reviews by external experts. As a result of these endeavours, about 90 000 out of 20 million patents and non-patent literature documents were tagged to class Y01N

PATENTS IN ENVIRONMENT-RELATED TECHNOLOGIES

Investment in clean technologies can help achieve a wide range of environmental objectives, from mitigating climate change, to controlling air and water pollution, and enhancing resource efficiency in general. Patents taken in renewable energy technologies or in techniques for controlling automobile emissions contribute to the development of clean technologies. Patenting of inventions related to renewable energy has grown continuously, especially since the mid-1990s. On average, the proportion of PCT filings to protect renewable energy technologies in all patents increased in most countries, especially the European Union and Japan. However, the level of patenting in renewable energy remains low: about 700 international patent applications were filed in 2005. Three generations of renewable energy technologies can be distinguished (International Energy Agency, 2006): first-generation technologies, which have already reached maturity (hydropower, biomass combustion, geothermal energy); second-generation technologies, which are rapidly evolving (solar energy, wind power, etc.); and third-generation technologies, which are currently under development

(e.g. concentrating solar power, ocean energy, improved geothermal systems, etc.).

Patents in Environment-related technology

Based on an intensive review of literature, a set of keywords were identified and used to determine appropriate IPC codes which relate directly to renewable energy in

Wind: F03D(1/*, 3/*, 5/*, 7/*, 9/*, 11/*), B06L8/00, B63H13/00

Solar: F03G6/*, F24J2/*, F25B27/00, F26B3/28, H01L31/042, H02N6/00, E04D13/18, B60L8/00

Geothermal: F24J003/*, F03G4/*, H02N10/00

Ocean: F03B13/(12-24), F03G7/(05, 04), F03B7/00

Biomass: C10L5/(42-44), F02B43/08, C10L1/14, B01J41/16

Waste: C10L5/(46-48), F25B27/02, F02G5/*, F23G4/46, F01K25/14, C10J3/38, F23G7/10, H01M8/06

Conclusions

The World’s most competitive businesses are built on protected innovations and brands. As exclusive rights to ideas and innovations take up a growing share of company value, patent, trademark and design information is the cornerstone of all corporate strategies.