IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ecinnt/v25y2016i2p114-142.html

Exploring the worldwide patent surge

Author

Listed:
  • Carsten Fink
  • Mosahid Khan
  • Hao Zhou

Abstract

Worldwide patent filings are at historically unprecedented levels. In 2011, the total number of patent applications for the first time exceeded two million -- double the approximately 1.05 million patents filed in 1995. Understanding what is behind this growth is important, as it may indicate faster technological progress, new innovation models and strategic shifts in how companies use the patent system. Policy-makers need to understand what drives the growth in patenting worldwide, not least to evaluate how the patent system can cope with the increasing flow of applications. A number of studies have looked at the growth in patent filings in individual countries, but have not focused on the world as a whole. This paper seeks to fill this gap by providing an analysis of global patenting trends using the most comprehensive data currently available. Among other things, it finds that subsequent patent filings -- additional filings of the same invention, mostly in additional countries -- contributed considerably to the growth in filings worldwide, pointing to globalization as one important driver of filing growth. However, no single factor can fully explain the marked increase in the use of the patent system.

Suggested Citation

  • Carsten Fink & Mosahid Khan & Hao Zhou, 2016. "Exploring the worldwide patent surge," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 114-142, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:25:y:2016:i:2:p:114-142
    DOI: 10.1080/10438599.2015.1055088
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10438599.2015.1055088
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10438599.2015.1055088?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mario Benassi & Elena Grinza & Francesco Rentocchini, 2020. "The rush for patents in the Fourth Industrial Revolution," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 47(4), pages 559-588, December.
    2. Archibugi, Daniele & Mariella, Vitantonio & Vezzani, Antonio, 2025. "What next? Nations in the technological race through the 2030," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    3. Blind, Knut & Filipović, Ellen & Lazina, Luisa K., 2022. "Motives to Publish, to Patent and to Standardize: An Explorative Study Based on Individual Engineers’ Assessments," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    4. Heikkilä, Jussi T.S. & Peltoniemi, Mirva, 2023. "The changing work of IPR attorneys: 30 years of institutional transitions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    5. He, Eric & Jacob, Martin & Vashishtha, Rahul & Venkatachalam, Mohan, 2022. "Does differential taxation of short-term relative to long-term capital gains affect long-term investment?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1).
    6. Vincent Jerald R. Ramos & Sarah Lynne S. Daway-Ducanes, 2025. "Nonlinearities in the Intellectual Property-Manufacturing Growth Nexus in the Post-TRIPS Era: Evidence from a Dynamic Panel Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(2), pages 10164-10194, June.
    7. Knut Blind & Tim Pohlmann & Florian Ramel & Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, 2014. "The Egyptian Information Technology Sector and the Role of Intellectual Property: Economic Assessment and Recommendations," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 18, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    8. Christian Bessy, 2019. "The transformations of conventions for patent use and the role of legal intermediaries," Working Papers halshs-01872163, HAL.
    9. Thomas Hoeren & Francesca Guadagno & Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, 2015. "Breakthrough technologies - Semiconductor, innovation and intellectual property," WIPO Economic Research Working Papers 27, World Intellectual Property Organization - Economics and Statistics Division.
    10. Fen Lin & Waverl W. Ding & Shi Chen, 2025. "The patent gold rush? An empirical study of patent bubbles in Chinese universities (1990–2019)," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 1602-1632, August.
    11. Fernandez, Viviana, 2021. "Patenting trends in the mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    12. Higham, Kyle & Contisciani, Martina & De Bacco, Caterina, 2022. "Multilayer patent citation networks: A comprehensive analytical framework for studying explicit technological relationships," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:25:y:2016:i:2:p:114-142. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GEIN20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.