GENEVA, March, 6 (KUNA) -- Saudi Arabia comes on the top rank of registered patents in the Arab World by 147 patents followed by the UAE by 39 and Egypt in the third rank by 33 patents, shows the World Intellectual property organization (WIPO) in its annual report.
Morocco registered 17 applications followed by Tunisia (8), then Syria (5), and 4 for each of Kuwait and Algeria in addition to one application for Jordan, Lebanon and Yemen.
Despite difficult economic conditions, international patent filings under the WIPO - administered Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) set a new record in 2011 with 181,900 applications - a growth of 10.7 percent on 2010 and the fastest growth since 2005.
China, Japan and the US accounted for 82 percent of the total growth.
A Chinese telecommunications company was the biggest filer of PCT applications in 2011.
"The recovery in international patent filings that we saw in 2010 gained strength in 2011," said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry speaking to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
"This underlines the important role played by the PCT system in a world where innovation is an increasingly important feature of economic strategy. It also shows that companies have been continuing to innovate in 2011 - reassuring news in times of persistent economic uncertainty", he added.
Attesting to the rapid growth of the PCT system, 2011 also saw the filing of the two millionth PCT application, by a US-based mobile technology company.
Among the top filing countries, PCT applications from China (+ 33.4 percent), Japan (+ 21 percent), Canada (+ 8.3 percent), the Republic of Korea (+ 8 percent) and the US (+ 8 percent) saw the fastest growth in 2011.
European countries witnessed a mixed performance, with Switzerland (+ 7.3 percent), France (+ 5.8 percent), Germany (+ 5.7 percent) and Sweden (+ 4.6 percent) experiencing growth, while the Netherlands (-14 percent), Finland (-2.
7 percent), Spain (-2.7 percent) and the United Kingdom (-1 percent) seeing declines.
The large middle-income economies of the Russian Federation (+ 20.8 percent), Brazil (+ 17.2 percent) and India (+ 11.2 percent) recorded double-digit filing growth.
The US with 48,596 filings remains the largest user of the PCT system, followed by Japan (38,888), Germany (18,568) and China (16,406).
However, the US (-0.7 percent) and Germany (-0.5 percent) saw drop in their shares of total filings, while China (+ 1.5) and Japan (+1.8) each increased their share by more than a percentage point.
One telecommunication company from china with 2,826 published applications overtook a company from Japan (2,463) as the top PCT applicant in 2011.
The University of California, with 277 applications published in 2011, is the largest filer among educational institutions, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (179), the University of Texas System (127), Johns Hopkins University (111) and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (103). Digital communications with 11,574 (or 7.1 percent of total) published applications remained the field of technology accounting for the largest share of total PCT applications in 2011, followed by electronic machinery (6.9 percent), medical technology (6.6 percent) and computer technology (6.4 percent).
Most technology fields experienced growth in patenting in 2011. Electronic machinery (23.2 percent) saw the fastest growth, but 11 other fields also experienced double-digits growth.
Only four-fields saw a decline in filings, including basic communication processes (-5.9 percent), organic fine chemistry (-4.1 percent), and pharmaceuticals (-1.9 percent).
The PCT system facilitates the process of seeking patent protection in multiple countries. It simplifies this process by postponing the requirement to file a separate application in each jurisdiction until after a centralized processing and initial patentability evaluation have taken place. Examination of the patentability of the invention in national offices and the related expenses are postponed, in the majority of cases, by up to 18 months - or even longer in some offices - as compared to direct patent filings. The PCT system now has 144 member states.(end) ta.mao KUNA 061343 Mar 12NNNN