National patent shares in major EU countries

This post examines the patent shares of five major EU countries from 1990 to 2014, using their publications in the PCT system. It is a follow-up to my Country shares in PCT patent applications, 2014 versus 2013 post, which I recommend should be read first. PCT stands for the Patent Cooperation Treaty, a world-wide agreement to simplify and cheapen patenting which countries can join (only residents or citizens of member states can use it).

I wanted to see how Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain did during this period. How had their numbers fared, by date-span or against each other ? Italy only joined the PCT in 1985 and Spain in 1989 and hence the data provided starts from 1990. I suspect that figures were low for these countries at least in the initial years due more to low interest or awareness of the opportunity, rather than necessarily to low innovation.

I found that during the 1980-84 period the three EU countries then in the PCT (Germany, France and the UK) together added up to 19.7% of all PCT total publications. Possibly this figure is boosted by the headquarters of the PCT being based locally, at WIPO in Geneva. The EU major countries' share rose to a high of 29.3% for the 1990-94 date-span but then declined, to just 13.6% in 2010-14. The Far East, and to some extent other countries, were fast increasing their numbers of applications, but the figures suggest that the EU is clearly in decline as a technological innovator. I am aware that EU countries such as Belgium and Sweden are missing but their inclusion would not significantly change the picture.

The first table gives the actual numbers of patent applications under the PCT within five-year date-spans from 1990 to 2014.

	Germany	France	UK	Italy	Spain	Total
1990-94	14226	5570	12213	1441	351	33801
1995-99	34537	11429	19526	3454	1172	70118
2000-04	61807	19973	30108	6584	2278	120750
2005-09	71853	24358	28867	9493	4278	138849
2010-14	68888	28329	25535	11104	5657	139513

While this is of interest more analysis is needed.

The second table gives the national percentage of share of the major country EU total by date-span. This makes it clear that Germany has been the EU's powerhouse of innovation as well as of industry, and makes it clearer that the UK's performance has disastrously declined. Its "market share" has almost halved over the period. Italy and Spain greatly improved their figures, admittedly from a low base.

	Germany	France	UK	Italy	Spain
1990-94	42.0%	16.4%	36.1%	4.2%	1.0%
1995-99	49.2%	16.2%	27.8%	4.9%	1.6%
2000-04	51.1%	16.5%	24.9%	5.4%	1.8%
2005-09	51.7%	17.5%	20.7%	6.8%	3.0%
2010-14	49.3%	20.3%	18.3%	7.9%	4.0%

The third table shows in a different wayt how each country has fared using 1990-94 as a baseline. Each country starts at 100 for that period, and if the number of patent applications goes up by say 20% that changes the country's number to 120.

	Germany	France	UK	Italy	Spain
1995-99	242	205	159	239	333
2000-04	434	358	246	456	649
2005-10	505	437	236	658	1218
2010-14	484	508	209	770	1611

It dramatically shows Spain's rise (from a low base) but caution is needed as it may merely reflect more use of the PCT by Spanish patent attorneys rather than a rise in innovation. This is where looking at applications through the national and European Patent Convention routes may help.

The population size is important, of course. A country may be particularly large or small. The fourth and final table is in some ways the most revealing. For each nation, it shows the population and on the next line the ratio of PCT patent applications for 1990-94, 2000-04 and 2010-14. A figure of 2500 would mean that there was one application per 2500 people. The lower the figure the more innovative the population. Population statistics (for 1990, 2000 and 2010) are taken from the Geohive site.

	Germany	France	UK	Italy	Spain
1990-94	80.4 M	56.8 M	57.2 M	56.8 M	38.8 M
	1 to 5651	1 to 10197	1 to 4683	1 to 39417	1 to 110541
2000-04	83.5 M	59.2 M	58.9 M	56.9 M	40.2 M
	1 to 1350	1 to 2964	1 to 1956	1 to 8642	1 to 17647
2010-14	83.0 M	63.2 M	62.0 M	60.5 M	46.1 M
	1 to 1204	1 to 2230	1 to 2428	1 to 5448	1 to 8149