UN report on patents and innovation

“History has shown… that companies and countries which continue to invest in new products and innovation during times of economic recession will be those that will be best positioned to take advantage of the recovery, when it arrives,” said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry.

Demand for international trademarks and patents dropped last year in the wake of the global economic crisis.  A report by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) points to weaker growth in patent filings in 2008, after a 3.7 per cent increase in 2007.

“What happens in an economic crisis is that there’s an interference in the value chain of intellectual property,” said Gurry.

Thus reduced profits from innovation lead to reduced investment in research and development and reduced applications for patent filings and trademarks.

But the trend is not uniform across countries and the WIPO report points to the growing use by East Asian countries, such as China, as its enterprises and universities become familiar with the international patent system.  China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) office has replaced the EPO as the fourth largest issuer of grants behind offices in Japan, the US, and the Republic of Korea.