Chapter 6: Science & Engineering Indicators 93
Patenting Outside the United States
In most parts of the world, foreign inventors account for a much larger share of total patent activity than is the case in the United States. When foreign patent activity in the United States is compared
with that in 11 other important countries during the years 1985 through 1990, only the former Soviet Union--with under 2 percent of its patents awarded to foreign inventors--and Japan--with around 15 percent--had less foreign patent activity. (See figure 6-21, and appendix tables 6-12, and 6-21.) The long pendency period (6 to 7 years) in Japan
and Japanese industry's practice of filing large numbers of applications claiming minor technical improvements to rival patentees' core technology tend to discourage foreign patenting (GAO 1993).
What is often obscured by the rising trends in foreign-origin patents in the United States is the success and widespread activity of U.S. inventors in patenting their inventions around the world. U.S. inventors lead all other foreign inventors not
just in countries neighboring the United States (Canada and Mexico) or in those as close culturally as Great Britain, but also in Japan, Brazil, and India. (See figure 6-22.) Two of the United States' major competitors show similar global patenting activity. Japanese inventors edge out Americans in Germany and dominate foreign patenting in South Korea. German inventors lead all foreign inventors in France and the former Soviet Union; they are also quite active in all of the other countries examined.
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