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INDEPENDENT INVENTORS: STATISTICS

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Annual alarm clock..

Prepared, and regularly updated, by IFIA
the International Federation of Inventors' Associations
Budapest, Hungary

http://www.invention-ifia.ch

First published on September 22, 2000
Updated on May 16, 2006


Wrong and misleading figures
Some persons state that independent inventors
count very little today in the inventive activity of
their countries. They say that corporations file
90 to 95 per cent of local patents.
IFIA contests these figures.

IFIA wrote to several government Patent Offices
and requested the following statistics: What was the number of patents filed by independent inventors
who are
Residents, compared to the total number
of patents filed by
Residents.  These official
statistics speak for themselves.


Western European Countries

Following an inquiry sent to several Patent Offices in 2005, IFIA received statistics
revealing a relatively high percentage of patents filed by independent inventors:

Hungary
Norway

Ireland
Belgium
Austria
Finland
Sweden
France
United Kingdom
Italy
  75 %
 
52 %

  43 %
  42 %
  41 %
  35 %
  34 %
  30 %
  26 %

  24 %

USA
The figures below were given to us by the USPTO in an e-mail dated November 1, 2000.
They include all US forms of patents (utility, designs and plants).

                                  USA Residents Filings

Year Total

Independent
Inventors

Percentage
1987
1988

1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
75.445
81.501

116.901
140.424
116.336
134.797
146.205
164.025
27.433
29.666

33.901
38.022
33.207
38.552
39.176
44.973
36.4 %
36.4 %

29    %
27    %
28.5 %
28.6 %
26.8 %
26.8 %

Latin America

Brazil
A recent inquiry conducted by the Brazilian patent office (INPI) on the basis of
statistics for the past 10 years, concerning patents, utility models and industrial designs,
reveals that 66 % of applications by Residents come from independent inventors. 
(Published in Projecto Inventiva - "Study of Technical and Economic Viability of National Inventiveness")

 

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