Top 20 Countries in Holding Nanotechnology Patents in 2021

By the end of 2021, a total of 23,750 nanotechnology-related patents were registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). While nearly half of USPTO patent applications belonged to the United States, China, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan were the following countries on the list.

According to ISO/TS 18110, the definition of nanotechnology patents is patents that include at least one claim related to nanotechnology or patents classified with an IPC classification code related to nanotechnology such as B82.

Based on a statistical survey conducted using the Orbit Database, in 2021, a total of 23,750 patents were registered with the US Patent Office in the field of nanotechnology, which indicates an approximate 6% growth compared to the previous year. 14,044 account for published patent applications, while 9705 are granted patents.

The United States owns about 47% of the USPTO nano-patents. Interestingly, in 2021, China surpassed its regional competitors in the USPTO regarding nanotechnology patents, ranking 2nd ahead of South Korea and Japan with 1,600 nano-patents (11.4%).

The table below shows the number of nanotechnology published patent applications issued by the top 20 countries in the USPTO in 2021 and the share of nanotech patents of these countries in their total number of published patents in the USPTO.

 

Number of nanotechnology published patent applications of the top 20 countries in the USPTO in 2021

 

Ranking

Country

Number

The share of nano-patents of total USPTO patents

1

USA

6,388

3.5%

2

China

1,599

4.4%

3

South Korea

1,364

4.8%

4

Japan

979

1.6%

5

Taiwan

784

5.4%

6

Germany

427

2.2%

7

Canada

283

4.1%

8

France

269

3.8%

9

UK

266

3.7%

10

Saudi Arabia

244

16.3%

11

Netherlands

178

3.9%

12

Switzerland

144

2.6%

13

Australia

94

4.4%

14

Belgium

84

5.5%

15

Italy

84

2.8%

16

Finland

81

4.4%

17

Singapore

81

3.9%

18

Spain

79

8.0%

19

India

74

4.5%

20

Sweden

70

1.6%

 

Another noteworthy point regarding this list is the remarkable attention paid to nanotechnology innovation by Asian countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, South Korea and Taiwan compared to their American or even European counterparts. About 16% of Saudi Arabia's registered patents at the USPTO belong to the field of nanotechnology, and this is while Iran has the highest share at 33% in this indicator.

 

Source
Nanotechnology published patent applications in USPTO