Innovation: China files almost half of the world's patents, India lags far behind - Check details

Patents Filing: 2021 was a particularly good one from the point of view of innovations, as 3.4 million patents were filed in the year. This is the highest number of patents ever filed in a single year. Before this, the highest number of patents filed was 3.3 million, in the year 2018.

In particular, Asia's share in patent filing has increased, and out of the world's total patents being filed - two-thirds are now being filed from the continent. A large share of this comes from China alone —which files about half of the world's patents. On the other hand, India's performance has improved, but China still files 25 times more patents than India.

Nearly half of world's patent applications are from China
China is continuously increasing its investment in the field of technology and innovation. Last year, the country had filed more than 1.5 million patents. This was about 46% of the total patents filed in the world. Out of the top 10 patent-filing countries, China alone has filed more patents than the other 9 countries combined. 

Also, there is a huge difference in the number of patents filed by China and the US. China applies for more than twice as many patents as the US. China filed 5.9% more patents in 2021 than the year before that.

Patent Filing: India's performance improves, now at number six in the world
When it comes to filing patents, India ranks sixth in the world — it has improved one position as compared to the previous year. India's rise has come at the cost of Germany, which has fallen one spot in the ranking. 

India filed 61,573 patents in the year 2021. This is 8.5% more than the previous year. The country also stood at the sixth position in terms of obtaining patents. India received 30,721 patents — which is 10 percent more than the number of patents received the year before. India is one of the few countries that has been able to grow in double-digits in obtaining patents.

China's dominance
It takes time to file and obtain a patent. For this reason, the number of patents filed and the patents obtained in a year cannot be compared fairly.

However, in the year 2021 alone, 1.76 million patents were granted worldwide. Of these, China received a maximum of 6,95,946 patents. The US stood second, with 327,307 patents received. After this comes Japan (184,372) and South Korea (145882) and the European Patent Office - EPO (108,799).

Patent Filing: Chinese company Huawei at the forefront
Out of the top 10 companies that have obtained patents, three are from China. Chinese brand Huawei obtained the maximum number of 6952 patents. Oppo has got 2,208 and BOE has received 1,980 patents.

The American company Qualcomm comes at the second position with 3,931 patents received. South Korea's Samsung and LG have received 3041 and 2885 patents, respectively.

Three Japanese companies - Mitsubishi, Sony and Panasonic - also feature in the list of top 10 companies with most patents received.

Participation of women has increased
Of all the patents filed in the year 2021, 16.5% of the total inventors have been women. Whereas in the year 2007, the participation of women was only 10.6%. 

In the year 2021, one-third of the patent applications include a female inventor, whereas, back in the year 2007, there were 20.5% women inventors.

According to the percentage of women inventors in the year 2021, Spain (25.7%) and Turkey (24.2%) are on the first and second position, where about a quarter of inventions are done by women. In China, 23.7% of inventors are women. India (10.2%), Japan (9.8%) and Austria (8.6%) have the least number of female inventors.