Expats applying more for patent than locals: Report

Non-residents have filed the highest number of patent applications in Bangladesh last year, according to a report. 

Bangladesh's Intellectual Property (IP) office received 413 patent applications in 2019, and 83.5% of them came from non-residents.

A year before, 368 applications were filed, and 81.25% of them were from non-residents.  

This increase in IP applications by non-residents was the main driver of the 12.2% year-on-on growth of total applications.

Among all the examined applications, only 33% (129) were granted by the authorities.

This was revealed in the World Intellectual Property Organisation's (WIPO) 2020 annual report titled "World Intellectual Property Indicators 2020". Published on Monday, the report presented the latest trends in global intellectual property activities. 

When it comes to trademarks, Bangladesh's IP office received more than 12,000 applications in 2019, up 2.93% than in 2018.

In 2019, the ratio of resident and non-resident trademark applications was about 6:4.

An estimated 11.5 million trademark applications covering 15.2 million classes were filed worldwide last year.

As for industrial designs, 1.04 million applications containing 1.36 million designs were filed that year.

Only 1,598 industrial design applications were filed in Bangladesh in 2019, down 21% than in 2018. Of them, 94% (1,494) were filed by residents.

Worldwide IP filing down; trademark, industrial design filing up

In 2019, global trademark and industrial design filing activities increased by 5.9% and 1.3% respectively.

But worldwide patent applications decreased by 3%, the first fall in a decade, and it was driven by a drop in filings by Chinese residents. Excluding China, global patent filings rose by 2.3%.

Despite a substantial decline, China received the highest number of patent applications (1.4 million) in 2019.

 Asia leads IP filing

For years, Asia has been the region with the greatest activity in patent filing. IP offices located in the region received more than two-third (65%) of all applications filed worldwide last year.

Offices located in Asia accounted for 70.6% of all trademark filing activities that year.

Applicants from China and Korea filed intensively for patents related to digital communication, while those from the US filed the most in the field of computer technology.

For Japan, the top technology field was electrical machinery, and for Germany, it was transport.

China's Huawei Technology remained the top filer of Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) international applications in 2019. It was followed by Mitsubishi Electric of Japan, Samsung Electronics from Korea, Qualcomm of the US, and Oppo Mobile Telecommunications of China.

Among the top 10 users of products of these companies, seven were located in northeast Asia.

Of the top 20 offices, nine were located in Asia, six in Europe, two each in North America and Latin America and the Carribean (LAC), and one in Oceania.

The report found that global trademark and industrial design creation activities rose in 2019 while the number of global patent applications dipped slightly due to weaker demand in intellectual property powerhouse China.

The report collected and analysed 2019 IP data from some 150 national and regional offices around the world. Offering insightful data, it covered patents, trademarks, industrial designs, and geographical indications.

Policymakers use WIPO report findings to understand the competitive global economic environment.