Intellectual Property Australia released the 2022 Annual Intellectual Property Report

Recently, the Australian Intellectual Property Office released the "2022 Annual Report on Intellectual Property", which shows the trends of innovation in Australia and the world.

01 Number of patent applications

In 2021, Australia filed a record 32,397 invention patent applications (Standard patent applications), an increase of 11% over 2020. Among them, the number of pharmaceutical patent applications for new crown vaccines and treatment methods has surged. At the same time, the number of patent applications for computer and audio-visual technology is also on the rise due to the increase in home office hours.

Figure 1 shows Australian patent filing growth in 2021, breaking the flat trend in patent filings during 2014-2020

Of the patent applications in 2021, only 9% came from Australian residents, and 91% came from a total of 29,401 applicants from various countries around the world.

In stark contrast to the economic situation of the global recession, the disclosed R&D budget for 2021 shows that since 2019, major companies around the world, including Australia, have continued to invest and increase R&D expenses. Business spending on research and development rose 24% over the same period, the highest rate of growth observed since the pandemic and ahead of other countries such as the US and Germany.

The number of Australian residents as applicants in patent applications in 2021 rose by 25 per cent to 2,401. Among them, patent applications filed through the via Nationalization of PCT accounted for 72% of the total, while the via Paris Convention accounted for 28%. Patent applications will reach the annual peak in August 2021, three times the number of applications for the same period in 2020. The reason is most likely because a large number of patent applicants are eager to submit patent applications before Australia cancels the innovation patent application type in August 2021 (Note: Innovation patents are similar to Chinese utility model patents).

Figure 2 shows peak Australian patent filings in August 2021

Of the patent applications filed in 2021, 94% came from companies and only 6% from individual applicants, down from 8% in 2020. Among enterprise applicants, 68% are small and medium-sized enterprises, and their number has increased by 27%, reaching the highest level in the past 10 years, an increase of 7 percentage points compared with 2020.

02 Authorization rate

A total of 17,155 patents will be granted by IP Australia in 2021, down 3% from 2020.

03 Country of origin

The five main countries of origin of Australian patent applications in 2021 are: the United States, China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom. Among them, US applicants accounted for 45% of all applications, an increase of 11% over 2020.

Figure 3 shows the main countries of origin of Australian patent applications in 2021

04International cooperation

Joint filings of patents provide some indicators of the international cooperation behind R&D and inventions. In 2021, the proportion of joint patent applicants among countries has declined, down 2 percentage points from 2020, and only 5% of patent applications use the joint applicant method.

There is no doubt that the new crown epidemic has brought more challenges to international cooperation, and more data show that the scientific and technological research and development of countries around the world are becoming more closed and localized.

Figure 4 shows that the cooperation between Japan and China reached its peak in 2019, European countries (mainly France, Germany, and Switzerland) reached their peak in 2020, and the international cooperation of all countries in the world declined in 2021

05 field

Among the Australian patent applications in 2021, the field with the largest number of applications is pharmaceuticals, with a total of 3967 applications, followed by medical technology and biotechnology, which have increased by 27%, 6% and 9% respectively compared with 2020.

The way of working in the era of the epidemic has also undergone considerable changes compared with before 2019. The demand for home office has made all enterprises explore digital operations, which is reflected in patent applications. Compared with 2020, patent applications for computer technology have increased by 27%, exceeding civil engineering.

Figure 5 shows that computer technology grew the fifth largest category of patent applications, and audiovisual technology patent applications increased by 85%

06Main applicant

The top non-Australian patent applicants in 2021 are: South Korean tech giant LG Electronics with 259 patent applications); Chinese smartphone maker Huawei Technologies with 255 patent applications and Guangdong Oppo Mobile Communications with 197 patents; Swiss food and beverage 157 patent applications by the multinational corporation Nestlé and 151 by Apple.

Australia's domestic patent applicants are mainly: Australian Noble Technology Co., Ltd. 71, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization 52, New South Innovation Co., Ltd. 29, ResMed Co., Ltd. 28 and Breville Enterprise Co., Ltd. 27.

Among them, ResMed is a new company on the list, which is a technology company born in Australia to produce global sleep and breathing medical products.

07Development of AI in the field of patents

In the "2022 Intellectual Property Report", the Australian Intellectual Property Office analyzed the technological evolution of artificial intelligence in key areas. According to the Government Action Plan for Critical Technologies formulated by the Australian government, Australia will include three The key technologies of interest are listed as AI key technologies, namely: artificial intelligence algorithms and hardware accelerators, machine learning, and natural language processing. Although the number of patent applications in the field of artificial intelligence in Australia is currently at a relatively low level, it is doubling every year. Australian patentees are applying key technologies of AI to everything from healthcare to energy and agriculture.

From 2015 to 2019, a total of 81,913 patent families around the world involved the above three key AI technologies, and more than 90% of them are still in the patent application stage. Intellectual Property Australia concluded from this that business activities involving AI have not yet reached their peak, will be vigorous and will develop rapidly in the future.

Figure 6 shows the growth of global AI patent family patent applications in key areas of AI from the priority period of 2015-2019

Despite the strong growth in AI patent applications from Australia, the number of patent applications currently held is only 1,343, less than 2% of global patent applications. Australia appears to be a relatively small destination for AI protection, but at the same time indicates a large room for growth, which may also reflect the specific application areas or business strategies that Australian innovators are focusing on.

Among Australian patent applicants, most of the patent applicants in the AI field are enterprises, with a total of 113 patent applications. Universities as research institutions have only 21 patents.

Applicants from major Australian companies applied for a total of 156 patents in countries around the world from 2015 to 2019, 86 of which were filed in Australia, such as Atlassian with 7 patent families and CSIRO with 5 patent families .

Atlassian, a Sydney-based provider of project management software, set an Australian IPO record when it listed on Nasdaq in 2015, valuing it at $4.4 billion. The company's valuation rose to US$101.8 billion (A$140 billion) by 2021 as the pandemic-era shift to remote work boosted demand for its software and its shares rose 53 per cent annually.

At present, tlassian has applied for patents in the fields of machine learning such as gesture and text recognition, as well as querying databases using neural network models. The company has not filed for any AI-related patents in Australia, which may indicate a distinct lack of technology competitors in the market.

Many other Australian companies leading in AI patent filings are growing rapidly in healthcare and medical devices. For example, Presagen, which has 3 patent families, is applying artificial intelligence to advance the development of breeding technology including improved embryo selection; Strax, which has 2 patent families, has developed an artificial intelligence software platform that can quickly integrate bone density images and measurements fracture risk; and Seesure, which has 2 patent families, offers a mobile app that monitors the health of epilepsy patients and applies algorithms to detect and predict seizures.

Leading domestic agribusinesses in Australia are also applying AI technology to improve farming practices. For example, CSIRO, which has 2 patent families, has created an application technology that can mimic the human eye to distinguish plants from weeds and reduce the use of herbicides.

08The world's leading patent applicant in the field of AI

IBM is the global leader in artificial intelligence patent applications for the three key AI technologies mentioned above. It applied for a total of 2,758 patents between 2015 and 2019, more than twice the number of patents applied by its competitor Samsung Electronics. China's Tencent also ranks among the top 5 in this field with 920 patent families and the Chinese Academy of Sciences with 860 patent families.

Figure 7 shows the number of global patent applicants in AI key areas from 2015 to 2019

08Innovation patent application

Affected by the imminent abolition of innovation patents, the number of innovation patent applications has been increasing rapidly in recent years. In 2021, innovative patent applications, including new applications and standard patents converted into innovation patents, will increase by 71% from 4,585 to 7,844 in 2020, which is 2.5 times that of 2019. Non-Australian resident patent applications accounted for 78% of filings in 2021, mainly from China (up 26%, 3,318) and India (2,371, nearly 4.5 times the 2020 level).

09 Australian Overseas Application

According to WIPO statistics, the number of overseas patent applications by Australians fell by 5% in 2020 to 9,106, but was still higher than the level in 2018.

The via Nationalization of PCT is the preferred patent application method for Australian applicants, and 73% of Australian overseas applications are filed through the via Nationalization of PCT . In 2020, the US remained the top destination country for overseas filings by Australian patent applicants, with Australians filing a total of 3,469 patent applications with the USPTO, followed by Europe (EPO), China and New Zealand. The country with the largest increase in overseas applications is Saudi Arabia, with an annual increase of 25 patent applications, and the share of patent applications increased to 5%.