It would have been truly strange not to find some area where there is evidence of a doubling of activity. I actually think we'll find more as we go on. But the past two weeks have been somewhat discouraging, so I'm happy to report that we see clear evidence of a doubling in the growth rate of patent filings in China over the past 5 years, and a doubling of the total number of academic patent filings worldwide between 1995 and 2000.
An article titled 'Rapid Patenting Growth By Academic Institutes In The People's Republic Of China' by Simon Pratt, published in June 2005 shows a doubling of the growth rate (not the actual numbers) of patent filings by academic institutions in China, and a doubling of academic patent filings worldwide by universities between 1995 and 2000 (see chart below). Sadly, that growth rate has not been sustained since 2000.
It is not unalloyed good news--worldwide, academic patent filings are a response to governmental decisions to allow universities to retain, license and exploit intellectual property, so there may just be substitution here--the same patent might previously have been filed by an individual at the academic institution or someone who had access to the reseach. But I'm so happy to find something relevant that has doubled in five years that this seems like a minor quibble.
Here is the chart showing the number of academic patent filings worldwide since 1980. As with all the charts on this weblog, clicking on the chart will bring it up in a readable size.
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