The number of patent applications filed by foreign applicants in Russia will decrease in 2023

In 2023, the number of US applicants submitting patent applications in Russia decreased significantly, directly leading to China becoming the largest source of foreign patent applications in Russia, while the number of patent applications in Ukraine and Eurasia remained the same as in 2023.

The Russian Patent Office received 6,069 patent applications from foreign applicants in 2023, the lowest point in the past decade. Compared with 2022, the total number of Russian patent applications filed by foreign companies and individuals in 2023 fell by 23.7%. For the first time, patent applications filed by Chinese applicants exceeded the 1,158 patent applications filed by American applicants with 1,175 patent applications. Other top countries include Switzerland (721), South Korea (505), Japan (418) and Germany (406). But Ukraine received a total of 1,901 patent applications in 2023, and the number of patent applications from foreign countries is still higher than the corresponding annual number of applications in 2019 or 2020 before the war.

In contrast, the popularity of Eurasian patents among foreign applicants continues to increase. In 2023, the Eurasian Patent Office received a total of 3,203 Eurasian patent applications, the highest number of foreign applicants since 2012, an increase of 3.4% over 2022, and the highest level in more than a decade. Compared with 2022, the number of applications from companies in countries such as Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands has dropped significantly by 37% to 42%, while the number of applications from Chinese and Korean companies has only dropped by 12% and 4.6%.

Similar to previous years, the biopharmaceutical industry and medical devices accounted for the largest share of Eurasian patent applications in 2023. Specifically, 23.1% of applications were related to preparations for medical purposes (A61K), 26.4% to organic chemistry (C07, A01N), and 8.1% to medical sciences (A61-A63).

In 2023, the Russian Patent Office rejected 283 patent applications from foreign applicants, which is similar to the number of rejections in 2022 (284). In 2023, the proportion of rejected patent applications from foreign applicants was 4.2%, and from Russian applicants was 7.6%, compared to 3.5% and 6.9%, respectively, in 2022.

In terms of the examination of patent applications, the Russian and Eurasian Patent Offices did not experience delays. In 2023, the average time for substantive examination in Russia was 4.27 months, similar to 2022 (4.2 months), but the average time for issuing the first examination opinion was not published.

For the Eurasian Patent Office, the average time for issuing the first examination opinion for invention patents in the fields of mechanics and physics is 2.64 months (5.6 months in 2022), while the average time for issuing the first examination opinion for invention patents in the field of biomedicine is 12.4 months.