Over the past 30 years, filings of patents have exploded, according to a study by a team of Swiss economists.
But over that time, there has been a big shift in where those filings have come from.
By aggregating patent filing data from nine sources, which they claim provides 81% coverage of all patent filings over the period from 1980 to 2012, the authors have developed a geocoded database that, when unpacked, shows two unmistakeable trends:
- Patent filings have increased massively, by more than fourfold, since 1980.
- China and South Korea have become huge generators of patents, in addition to older research economies like North America, Western Europe, and Japan.
Most of the World's Patent Growth Comes from East Asia
China and South Korea have seen explosions in patent filings
Source: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/OTTBDX
However, while these countries' filings have grown from almost nothing, they don't represent a growth in East Asia's clout, taken altogether.
Japan's Share of Worldwide Patents Has Withered
China and South Korea have eaten into Japan's dominance.
Source: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/OTTBDX
But across the Pacific, the dominance of China and South Korea has been matched, in some degree, by the growth of the tech economy in the US.
Patent Growth Has Been Equally Robust in the US
California has an increasingly dominant presence
Source: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/OTTBDX
And just as in Asia, California's tech economy (along with Washington's) has been generating a larger share of patents compared to other regions nationwide.
California's Share of US Patents is Growing
Tech has boosted Washington state's share as well
Source: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/OTTBDX