With 2010 in the books, we decided to take a look at which countries were the most popular national stage destinations for our clients last year. 

inovia ranked 4th last year in PCT national stage entries, according to a Managing IP report in October 2010.  Here's the breakdown of where our clients filed in 2010:

  1. China – 12%
  2. Canada – 10%
  3. Japan – 9%
  4. India, Australia, Brazil and Europe – 8% each
  5. South Korea – 6%
  6. Mexico and Russia – 5%

Note that roughly 75% of our clients are US-based companies and/or their outside counsel, so the US itself does not rank as a foreign filing destination.

Some interesting trends appear when comparing these numbers to our PCT filing data for 2009.  China reasserts itself as the top destination for inovia's clients, with Japan holding steady and Korea gaining 2% in popularity. Europe saw a 2% decrease in filings from our clients.  Could this be a reflection of the high expenses of filing in the EPO coupled with the global economic downturn?   

We also took a look at the top countries by industry type:

Mechanical/Engineering:

  1. China
  2. Brazil
  3. Canada
  4. India
  5. Japan

Electrical/Electronics:

  1. Japan
  2. China, South Korea
  3. Europe
  4. Australia, India

Pharmaceutical/Biotech:

  1. Canada
  2. Australia, Japan
  3. China
  4. Brazil

Chemical/Materials:

  1. Canada
  2. Brazil
  3. Australia, India
  4. China

IT/Software/Media:

  1. Europe
  2. Australia, China
  3. Canada
  4. Korea

We saw Europe drop substantially this year in terms of filings by the Mechanical/Engineering and Pharmaceutical/Biotech industries.  Japan also was less popular among our clients' filing destinations, in particular among Pharma/Biotech and IT/Software/Media companies.  Click here to compare this data to the 2009 results. 

For more information on foreign filing best practices, please visit our blog.

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