It’s that time of year again! With 2012 in the books, let’s take a look at the top national phase filing destinations for our clients from the past year.
2012 was a big year for inovia. We were ranked #1 in the US and #2 in the world for handling PCT applications at the national stage by Managing IP. We expanded our agent network to cover 110 countries. And, our NYC headquarters relocated to a new, larger office space at the end of the year… not to mention 2012 was also our 10th anniversary! Phew.
So let’s get to it. Here’s where our clients entered the national stage in 2012:
- China – 12.3%
- India – 9.0%
- Canada – 8.9%
- Brazil – 8.7%
- Japan – 8.1%
- Australia – 7.2%
- Europe – 7.0%
- Russia – 5.4%
- South Korea – 4.9%
- USA – 4.4%
These stats are very similar to what we saw in 2011. China retained its position as the most popular filing destination for our clients, which comes as no surprise given that China surpassed the USPTO in 2011 to become the largest patent office in the world (according to WIPO data). The percent of applications filed into India and Canada dropped slightly, while Brazil saw a slight increase.
There are also a few growth countries to note. While their percentages are small, we’ll certainly keep an eye on them in 2013:
- Chile – 1.4% in 2012 vs. 0.5% in 2011
- Thailand – 1.2% in 2012 vs. 0.4% in 2011
- Colombia – 1.1% in 2012 vs. 0.7% in 2011
We also took a look at the top filing destinations by industry type. Here are the results:
Business/Finance
- USA, Europe
- China, Canada, India
- Japan, Australia
- Brazil
- South Korea
Chemical/Materials
- USA, China, Canada
- India, Brazil
- Japan, Australia, Mexico
- South Korea
- South Africa, Chile
Electrical/Electronics
- China
- India, Japan
- USA
- South Korea
- Europe
IT/Software/Media
- Canada
- China
- Russia
- Brazil
- Europe, Australia
Mechanical/Engineering
- China
- Brazil
- Russia
- India
- Canada
Pharmaceutical/Biotech
- Japan
- China
- Canada
- Europe
- Brazil
These results are also similar to what we saw in 2011, which you can compare here.
If you have applications due to enter the national stage in 2012, let us know in the comments section below how these countries rank in importance in your foreign filing strategy. You can also register for a free inovia.com account to get an instant cost estimate for PCT national stage entry.
Happy New Year!
US rank of tenth in the list seems odd. I’m guessing the USA only ranks 10th in terms of national phase filing because most US filers would file directly in the US rather than go through the PCT process?
Also having a bit of trouble understanding the percentage values. They seem low. The top ten countries in the list only add up to 75.9%. I would have expected a higher total ( > 100%) based on companies filing in multiple national jurisdictions?
Hi Ed,
Thanks for your questions. Your understanding about the US is correct. ~60% of our clients are US-based companies/patent firms who have already filed a nonprovisional application into the USPTO, which is why the US ranks lower as a PCT national stage entry destination.
As for other jurisdictions, we file into over 110 countries so the 24.2% of filings outside of the top 10 are into other destinations including Mexico, South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Israel, New Zealand, Indonesia, Chile, Thailand, Colombia, Vietnam etc.
Regards,
Cara