China increases US patent holdings tenfold from 2008 but IBM holds on to top spot

Washington

CHINESE inventors received a record number of US patents in 2018 and are on pace to overtake Germany in the No 4 position of top recipients, according to an analysis of filings with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Inventors working for Chinese companies were issued 12,589 US patents in 2018, a 12 per cent jump on the year and a 10-fold increase over the 1,223 they received a decade ago. The US still dominates the field, with 46 per cent of the 308,853 US utility patents issued last year, followed by companies based in Japan, South Korea and Germany.