Falling patent quality hits innovation, says OECD

The number of patents being filed is rising inexorably but patent quality has declined by 20 per cent over the past twenty years, slowing the time to market for true innovations and reducing the potential for breakthrough inventions, according to a new OECD report.

The OECD’s Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2011 published this week, finds the decline in patent quality has occurred in nearly all countries studied.

According to the OECD, studying patent quality in different sectors has also allowed it to assess which countries are doing best in innovation. The UK, for example, produces semiconductor and environmental technology patents that are above average in quality. Korea has a competitive advantage in ICT-related innovations. And Germany is strong at innovating in solar energy.

Patents from inventors in the US, Germany and Japan are the most highly cited, which suggests they are true innovations being used by many firms in their products to generate further innovations. But while these countries produced about 70 per cent of the top 1 per cent of highly cited patents between 1996 and 2000, their share had fallen to 60 per cent five years later.

Meanwhile, the Nordic countries and China, India and Korea have seen their share of highly cited patents increase. The European Union leads in clean energy technologies, with member states filing nearly 40 per cent of all patent applications by the late 2000s, followed by the US and Japan. In this area, China now ranks 8th worldwide.

The OECD report also ranks research by universities worldwide, finding that overall, 40 of the top 50 filers are located in the US, with the rest in Europe. But a more diverse picture emerges when looking at subject areas, where there is growing evidence that universities in Asia are emerging as leading research institutions: China has 6 in the top 50 in pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics. And Hong Kong University is among the best in computer science, engineering and chemistry.

The complete Scoreboard 2011 is available at www.oecd.org/sti/scoreboard