China Now Top Patent Filer 135
smitty777 writes "China has passed the U.S. as the number-one filer of patents this year, according to a report by Thompson Reuters. With an average annual increase of 16.7%, China has filed 314,000 patents last year. This brings the total share of China in worldwide holdings up from 54% to 58%. However, according to legal expert Elliot Papageorgiou: 'One thing is volume, quality is quite another. The return, or the percentage of grants, of the patents is still not as high in China as, say, in the U.S., Japan or some places in Europe.' This was also a record year for patent filing over all, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). According to their numbers, worldwide patent applications are up 7.2%, at 1.98 million in 2010. FTA: 'WIPO Director General Francis Gurry on Tuesday attributed the rise to the "knowledge economy" and globalization led by U.S. and Chinese innovation.'"
First post (Score:2, Insightful)
Whopdeedoo.
Like most of China's academic papers these patents will also be worthless garbage.
This, finally, will bring sanity to the system (Score:5, Insightful)
I suppose bias against Chinese-originated patents could stifle this... but I suppose they will just create shell companies to work around that.
What's a "knowledge economy"? (Score:5, Insightful)
US has patents mostly because of... (Score:0, Insightful)
The US has patents mostly because of foreign researchers in the US. When Chinese / Indians / Russians / Israili / Singaporeans / others discover they no longer have to go to US for research work, the US will have almost nothing.
Re:US has patents mostly because of... (Score:4, Insightful)
quality (Score:2, Insightful)
"One thing is volume, quality is quite another..."
Right. 'Cause, ya know, the U.S.A. cranks-out quality patents all day.
% before the numbers? (Score:2, Insightful)
its 54%, not %54
get a brain morans
Re:This, finally, will bring sanity to the system (Score:2, Insightful)
The USPTO stance is that if you want to get a shoddy patent they'll let you, but it's your ass in court if it's easily invalidated. The problem is that the courts are reluctant to invalidate the bogus patents because they don't know the technology well enough.
U.S. grants a higher percentage? (Score:4, Insightful)
If anything, I would think that granting a higher percentage of patents is a sign of lower quality.
But then again, I also don't see more patents as a rise in the "knowledge economy" or globalization lead by innovation.
Re:China now top patent DEfiler (Score:3, Insightful)
China now top patent DEfiler
I think the country with the highest number of patent trolls deserves that particular title don't you?
(take a guess which country that is)
Re:US has patents mostly because of... (Score:4, Insightful)
Uh, oh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Neil DeGrasse Tyson, in his talk at last years TAM, showed us a world map that illustrated the number of new scientific research papers filed by country. In 2000, the U.S. was still a leader. Then he showed the 2008 map, and the U.S. looked like a deflated balloon. My comment at the time was that primary research shows you applied research ten years down the road, and industrial innovation 20 years down the road. Guess I was right.
Tyson's point was that the Bush administration's defunding of pure science was reflected in the map. Much as libertarians don't like to hear this, private research goes into low hanging fruit. Primary research is too risky, particularly since, if done right, it enters the public domain. Only a handful of companies do this (IBM and Google, take a bow--Apple and Microsoft, sit down.) Medical advances are particularly susceptible to this. The computer revolution came from NASA and the Apollo project, the internet came from DARPA funding of AT&T for the creation of resilient network (those same Bell labs are now beggars at the table of Alcatel, a French company.)
Every other country that is a major player is spending a lot on primary research, and this funding is coming from the government. It's infrastructure, it lays the road for the business of the future, and its the one area where the government excels. China is spending a fortune on this, and we've exported all of our know how to them already, When IBM farms out manufacturing to another country, they send their engineers there to teach the manufacturers exactly what to do, and many other companies do exactly the same thing. They know almost everything we know, but we don't know everything they know--not anymore.
The Greatest Generation, the people who grew up in the depression and fought the Axis, understood responsibility. They did a lot of things wrong, but they knew how to work together towards a better future, and our standard of living is the result of that. Can you imagine rubber and silk drives today? Americans couldn't even be bothered to pay higher taxes for Iraq and Afghanistan, even while they made noises about supporting the troops. It's time to grow up and carry not only our weight, but more than our weight, and pass a torch that burns brighter for our having held it. So the next time you hear the latest Fox demagogue complaining about taxes, and demanding lower taxes, imagine how his belly aching would have sounded in the 40's.
Re:What's a "knowledge economy"? (Score:1, Insightful)
It's where you make knowledge a scare resource so that you can apply the term "economy" to it.
Re:US has patents mostly because of... (Score:3, Insightful)
There is no such thing as an American company. Corporations are not physical entities, they have no national loyalty. They are not supporting any national economy. They are parasites that are only serving themselves. Any benefit to the host country is purely accidental.
Re:% before the numbers? (Score:2, Insightful)
http://www.google.se/search?q=get+a+brain+morans
Re:Uh, oh... (Score:1, Insightful)
Maybe the reason was that the war with the axis had nothing to do with stealing resources from third world countries?
I have a feeling if a genuine evil shows up, with a genuine threat to the american life, then the current generation will become the greatest generation + 1.
You are clueless (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, quality counts in academic papers, but .. crappiness counts in patents.
Yes, crappiness mildly obstructs obtaining the patent, fine file more patents. Yet, crappiness is an incredible asset once you obtaing the patent, but the more overboard, the more people you can sue.