Assignees - where did they file?

For the approximately 653 patent families, a breakdown of countries filed in versus the first-listed assignee was obtained.  Some trends emerged.  First, on average, companies filed in more countries than did non-profit organizations or individual inventors.  Second, the patent offices most often filed in are in Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, United States and WIPO, regardless of the type of organization.  Third, the top assignees filed over 80% of their patent applications in high income countries and less than 1% in low income countries.  Therefore, despite the opportunity to file in low income countries, organizations do not do so. 

Companies, non-profits, and individual inventors. 

• Company assignees filed in an average of 14.7 countries, whereas non-profit organizations filed in an average of only 7.7 countries.  Individual inventors - some of whom may have already or may yet assign to an organization - filed in only 3.3 countries on average.  These data are not surprising, as non-profit organizations and individual inventors will typically have less money to spend on protecting inventions. 
• Companies and non-profits filed at approximately similar frequency in the various countries with a few exceptions.  In rough approximation, companies filed more frequently than expected in Argentina, Czech Republic, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Taiwan, and South Africa and somewhat less frequently in Switzerland, France, as compared to non-profit organizations.  If we exclude individual European countries, the most common countries filed in include Australia, Canada, European Patent Office,  Japan, United States, and WIPO; these 6 patent offices account for approximately 50% of all the patent filings.  These countries and Europe have large markets and especially, pharmaceutical manufacturing capability.  In our experience, organizations are less likely to file patent applications in other countries with similar profiles (e.g., Brazil, China, India); some reasons include cost, slow examination process, and difficulty of patent enforcement.  In addition, until very recently, India disallowed patents on pharmaceutical products.

Top Assignees

•  Of the assignees filing 5 or more patent families, three - GlaxoSmithKline, Wyeth, and Pfizer - each filed in an average of more than 10 countries per patent family.  The vast majority of the patent applications - 82.6% - were filed in high income countries.  Only 16.6% were filed in middle income countries and less than 1% were filed in low income countries.  The two Chinese organizations only filed in China, and the Japanese organization filed mainly in Japan.  These three organizations had the lowest average number of countries per patent family (1.0 - 1.3 average). 

The information contained in this page was believed to be correct at the time it was collated. New patents and patent applications, altered status of patents, and case law may have resulted in changes in the landscape. CAMBIA makes no warranty that it is correct or up to date at this time and accepts no liability for any use that might be made of it. Corrections or updates to the information are welcome. Please send an email to info@bios.net.

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