The global appetite for inventions and their money-making spin-offs has sparked an explosion in patent applications, mainly in Asia and the US, which threatens to swamp the system responsible for dealing with them, experts have warned.
Worldwide patent applications are growing at about 4.7 percent per year, according to last year's report of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, and the pace is even faster among Asian economic tigers such as China and South Korea.
In China, applications grew eight-fold in the decade since 1995 and doubled over the same period in South Korea.
Alison Brimelow, who heads the European Patent Office (EPO), said China, which is particularly inventive, has overtaken Europe in terms of patents filed, while the US and Japan still lead the pack.
In 2005, 1.6 million applications were filed worldwide.
"Piles of unexamined patents represent uncertainty in the market place because you don't know if someone's got in ahead of you and may come in with an idea that kills yours," she said.
A recent EPO-linked report said patent applications to the organization had quadrupled over the past 25 years to reach 208,500 in 2006, mainly because of greater input by new Asian players, increased global business activity and ever-faster development in information, communication and biotechnologies.
A year ago, the backlog at the EPO stood at 440,000 files. In Japan it stood at 838,000 and in the US at 1.1 million.
Of the applications received by the EPO, 30 percent are ruled out in the early stages of the research for "prior art" -- finding out if inventions are indeed new -- while nearly half of the remainder falls by the wayside later in the process.
"That does tell us that quite a lot of rubbish is coming in," Brimelow said.
In a bid to reduce backlogs, the EPO is looking at ways of encouraging greater cooperation among patent offices in Europe, and between top international players in Europe, the US, Japan, China and South Korea.
"Given the rapid growth of both Korea and China, it is very important to find ways to work effectively with them," said Brimelow, who points to difficulties, for example, in cooperating with China in the search for "prior art."
But paradoxically, it is growing Chinese piracy which is currently putting a dampener on patenting in Europe, according to German business circles.
"The technical details [of patent applications] are available online 18 months after a patent application has been filed, making it easy for an expert to understand them," the head of the German patent office Juergen Schade recently told the Financial Times Deutschland.
Because of pirating "we actually register very few patents," said Heinrich Weiss, head of the SMS steel group.
Chinese competitors regularly take advantage of technical data published by patent offices to rush out copycat products, he claimed.
The head of German crane manufacturer Demag, which specializes in lifting apparatus for ports, said the Chinese had earlier copied two versions of its cranes.
"Now we try to keep the Chinese at a distance for as long as possible," an official said.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
STAY WARM: Sixty-three nontraumatic incidents of OHCA were reported on Feb. 1, the most for a single day this year, the National Fire Agency said A total of 415 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurred this month as of Saturday, data from the National Fire Agency showed as doctors advised people to stay warm amid cold weather, particularly people with cardiovascular disease. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a low temperature warning nationwide except for Penghu County, anticipating sustained lows of 10°C or a dip to below 6°C in Nantou, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as areas north of Yunlin County. The coldest temperature recorded in flat areas of Taiwan proper yesterday morning was 6.4°C in New Taipei City’s Shiding District (石碇). Sixty-three nontraumatic OHCA
RSS