Asia’s International Patents Boom

From Red Herring: Asia’s IP boom

"Asian countries, often derided as technology thieves and copycats, are filing international patents in record numbers, according to figures released Wednesday by the U.N.’s World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva."

"The United States still tops the list of countries putting in new patents, but South Korea and China are gaining ground. Chinese inventors filed 1,782 of the 120,000 patents of 2004, a 38 percent increase over the year before. South Korea boosted its patent count by 20 percent over 2003 with 3,521 applications."

"South Korea’s Samsung filed more patent applications with the organization in 2004 than Cisco and Microsoft combined. Huawei Technologies topped the list in China with 177 patents." Read more