Top Patenting Countries in Nanotechnology

2013-01-17

According to studies carried out by statnano.com, 27,350 patents had been published by the end of December 2012 in USPTO, among which 57% were published by the United States, giving the first rank to this country while Japan, Republic of Korea, and Taiwan hold the next ranks.

According to studies carried out by Statnano, 27,350 patents had been published by the end of December 2012 in USPTO, among which 57% were published by the United States, giving the first rank to this country while Japan, Republic of Korea, and Taiwan hold the next ranks.

Republic of Korea and Taiwan showed a one-step growth in the ranking while Germany had a fall of one step, possessing the fifth rank. According to the following table, Eastern Asian countries have paid special attention to the American nanotechnology markets.

Top 30 countries according to their nanotechnology published patents in 2012

Rank	Country	USPTO	EPO
1	USA	15695	849
2	Japan	3513	942
3	South Korea	1320	237
4	Taiwan	1055	24
5	Germany	969	353
6	France	625	138
7	China	549	87
8	UK	475	65
9	Netherlands	407	89
10	Canada	390	39
11	Switzerland	289	118
12	Belgium	234	62
13	Australia	161	19
14	Singapore	159	11
15	Sweden	156	15
16	Italy	138	43
17	Denmark	119	12
18	India	117	5
19	Spain	107	69
20	Finland	96	12
21	Ireland	63	14
22	Austria	60	34
23	Saudi Arabia	48	2
24	Norway	46	6
25	Luxembourg	39	3
26	Russia	34	13
27	Brazil	25	5
27	New Zealand	25	0
29	Iran	22	3
30	South Africa	16	1

In 2012, more than 13,350 nanotechnology patents were granted, which equaled 5.7% of the total patents in the same year. In this ranking, the United States, Japan, Republic of Korea, and Taiwan hold the first to fourth rank. The following table lists the number of granted nanotechnology patents for the top 30 countries in the world, and the share of their nanotechnology patents from their total patents in USPTO.

Number and share of nanotechnology patents from the total number of patents in 2012

Rank	Country	Nano-patents	Total patents	Share of nano (%)
1	USA	8068	118855	6.79
2	Japan	1943	45851	4.24
3	South Korea	577	12107	4.77
4	Taiwan	552	10952	5.04
5	Germany	409	11987	3.41
6	France	299	4819	6.2
7	Netherlands	233	2741	8.5
8	China	227	4469	5.08
9	Canada	174	4204	4.14
10	UK	133	3182	4.18
11	Switzerland	125	2836	4.41
12	Singapore	74	922	8.03
13	Australia	64	1261	5.08
14	Belgium	62	655	9.47
15	Sweden	59	2257	2.61
16	Denmark	34	771	4.41
17	Italy	34	1618	2.1
18	Ireland	34	539	6.31
19	Finland	26	1016	2.56
20	Spain	25	470	5.32
21	Saudi Arabia	17	169	10.06
22	India	17	407	4.18
23	Austria	16	627	2.55
24	Luxembourg	10	216	4.63
25	Norway	10	288	3.47
26	Iran	10	21	47.62
27	New Zealand	7	197	3.55
28	Mexico	5	108	4.63
29	Russia	5	122	4.1