The drop in the number of patents in the United States was the sharpest in 10 years – RBC

In the US, the number of patents for inventions declines for the second year in a row

In 2021, the total number of patents registered in the United States decreased by 7.5%. Most of the new patents were registered by local companies, as well as firms from Japan, South Korea and China. Russian players are almost invisible against their background

In 2021, the number of patents registered in the United States for various technologies decreased by 7.5% compared to the previous year and amounted to 327.3 thousand, follows from the data of IFI Claims Patent Services. It is a platform for analyzing data in the field of intellectual property, which has been publishing the top 50 largest patent holders in the American market for several decades (RBC has the results, the analysis was carried out in the IFI Claims Direct patent database).

The total number of patent applications was 410 thousand, which is 1% lower than in 2020. The number of registered patents has been declining for the second year in a row, but the drop in 2021 was the largest in the last 10 years, according to the IFI Claims Patent Services report.

Most of the patents registered in the United States were held by local companies (45.8%), as well as structures from Japan (14.4%), South Korea (6.5%) and China (6.3%). Moreover, only Chinese firms have this indicator last year increased (by 10%). The largest number of patents last year was received by the American IBM (over 8.6 thousand), South Korean Samsung (6.4 thousand), Japanese Canon (3 thousand), Taiwanese TSMC (2.8 thousand), Chinese Huawei (2 , 77 thousand), as well as American Intel (2.6 thousand) and Apple (2.5 thousand).

Among the patented technologies, the leaders were digital data processing; transmission of digital information; semiconductors; wireless communication networks, etc. The most actively, by 35%, the number of patents related to computer systems based on specific computed models (including such areas as machine and deep learning, quantum computers, computer systems based on biological models ). There was also an increase, albeit a much slower (3%), in the number of patents related to data recognition.