The number of new patent filings and grants decreased by 4% and 7%, respectively, year-on-year (YoY) during Q3 2022, mainly due to decline in activity from the top five patent offices in China, the US, Japan, Europe, and Korea (IP5*). The decline could be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemics’ after-effects on the global economic slowdown, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s patents landscape quarterly report, “Patent Statistics and Analysis Q3 2022,” reveals that China’s patent grants have decreased by 4% YoY, particularly due to the enhanced scrutiny during the official evaluation stage.

Rohit Singh, Project Manager of Patents Database at GlobalData, comments: “China has seen a decline in patent grants compared to its patent filings, which could be attributable to the meticulous patent examination mandated by the patent office’s ‘Annual Guidelines for Facilitating High-Quality Development of Intellectual Property 2022’ policy.”

Traditional prolific patent filers including Huawei, Samsung, and LG have all seen a significant decline during the focal quarter. For instance, Samsung saw a 1% decrease in Q1 2021, which further decreased to 30% in Q3 2022. Similar declines were seen in the quarter for Huawei (from 5% to down -0.3%) and LG (down from -6% to -30%).

Anil Gopalkrishna Sharma, Practice Head of Patent Database at GlobalData, comments: “Companies might face challenging decisions about applying for patents and payment of maintenance fees on account of the current volatile global economic environment.”

Singh concludes: “It will be interesting to see the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of economic slowdown, how the patenting activity will be in 2023, especially from the IP5 which is a major contributor to the patenting activity.”

*IP5: Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), European Patent Office (EPO), Japan Patent Office (JPO), China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).