Japan Stays 2nd in Int'l Patent Filing Ranking in '08

Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 27 (Jiji Press)--Japan kept the second
place in the ranking of international patent applications in 2008 following
the United States, the World Intellectual Property Organization said
Tuesday.

But by individual applicant, the top position was grabbed by a
Chinese company for the first time ever, with the previous year's champion,
Panasonic Corp. <6752> of Japan, outnumbered by eight applications, the WIPO
reported.
Last year, 53,521 international patent applications under the
Patent Cooperation Treaty were filed by inventors and companies from the
United States, helping the country top the list for about 30 years.
Japan's filings came to 28,744, followed by Germany, South Korea,
France and China.
The top five positions went to the same countries as in the
previous year, while China rose to sixth by toppling Britain.
Globally, patent applications increased 2.4 pct from a year earlier
to nearly 164,000. But the growth rate was far smaller than the three-year
average of 9.3 pct because of the economic slowdown, the WIPO said.
The report also showed China's telecommunications equipment maker
Huawei Technologies Co. became the leading patent-filing company with 1,737
PCT applications. Filings by Panasonic, then named Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co., totaled 1,729.
Among other Japanese firms, Toyota Motor Corp. <7203> ranked fourth
and Fujitsu Ltd. <6702> 10th.
Under the PCT system, applicants can get patent protection in all
member countries through WIPO procedures instead of filing country by
country.