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According to statistical data, a total number of 709454 patents have been published in all fields of science and technology in USPTO in 2015, which is about three times larger than the total number of patents in European Patent Office (EPO). There are 326971 granted patents and 382483 published patent applications in USPTO in 2015. Table 1 lists the share of countries in the number of patents published in USPTO in 2015, the ranking of the countries, and the ratio of the number of country's patents to the total number of patents published in USPTO. More than 90% of all patents published in USPTO belong to the top 10 countries. A number of 156 countries have published patent applications in USPTO while 141 countries have granted patents. This fact shows the importance of United States Office in technology and global markets. The following table shows the top 50 countries in publication of granted patents or published patent applications in USPTO.

Rank	Country	No. Published Patent Applications	Share of Published Patent Applications (%)	Rank	Country	No. Granted Patents	Share of Granted Patents (%)
1	USA	181069	47.34	1	USA	164919	0.44
2	Japan	63536	16.61	2	Japan	55351	6.93
3	South Korea	26097	6.82	3	South Korea	20703	6.33
4	Germany	20075	5.25	4	Germany	16618	5.08
5	Taiwan	15983	4.18	5	Taiwan	13179	4.03
6	China	14065	3.68	6	China	8706	2.66
7	France	8651	2.26	7	France	7100	2.17
8	Canada	6610	1.73	8	Canada	5528	1.69
9	UK	6463	1.69	9	UK	4777	1.46
10	Switzerland	5142	1.34	10	Switzerland	4598	1.41
11	Netherlands	4685	1.22	11	Netherlands	4065	1.24
12	Sweden	4257	1.11	12	Sweden	3438	1.05
14	Italy	2647	0.69	13	Italy	2243	0.69
15	Finland	2239	0.59	15	Finland	1662	0.51
16	Singapore	1937	0.51	15	Singapore	1662	0.51
17	Australia	1896	0.50	17	Australia	1534	0.47
18	India	1712	0.45	18	Denmark	1175	0.36
19	Denmark	1550	0.41	19	Belgium	982	0.30
20	Austria	1423	0.37	20	Austria	965	0.30
21	Belgium	1331	0.35	21	India	897	0.27
22	Spain	1056	0.28	22	Bermuda	790	0.24
23	Ireland	904	0.24	23	Ireland	764	0.23
24	Norway	780	0.20	24	Spain	668	0.20
25	Luxembourg	578	0.15	25	Luxembourg	641	0.20
26	Saudi Arabia	567	0.15	26	Norway	542	0.17
27	Russia	469	0.12	27	Saudi Arabia	409	0.13
28	New Zealand	406	0.11	28	New Zealand	280	0.09
29	Brazil	379	0.10	29	Brazil	278	0.09
30	Mexico	268	0.07	30	Russia	257	0.08
31	Poland	231	0.06	31	Liechtenstein	154	0.05
32	Turkey	211	0.06	32	South Africa	145	0.04
33	Malaysia	208	0.05	33	Poland	142	0.04
34	Liechtenstein	190	0.05	34	Mexico	138	0.04
35	South Africa	182	0.05	35	Turkey	105	0.03
36	Czech Republic	133	0.03	36	Malaysia	93	0.03
37	UAE	96	0.03	37	Cyprus	68	0.02
38	Greece	94	0.02	37	Hungary	68	0.02
39	Portugal	93	0.02	39	Iceland	66	0.02
40	Hungary	92	0.02	40	Kuwait	64	0.02
41	Iceland	88	0.02	41	Chile	61	0.02
42	Malta	82	0.02	41	Czech Republic	61	0.02
43	Cyprus	75	0.02	43	Thailand	57	0.02
44	Chile	73	0.02	44	UAE	52	0.02
45	Argentina	63	0.02	45	Greece	49	0.01
46	Thailand	61	0.02	46	Portugal	46	0.01
47	Colombia	58	0.02	47	Bahamas	44	0.01
48	Bulgaria	49	0.01	48	Argentina	43	0.01
49	Bahamas	47	0.01	48	Bulgaria	43	0.01
50	Iran	44	0.01	50	Slovenia	39	0.01
	World	382483	100		World	326971	100

The following figure shows the share of continents in the publication of patents in USPTO. As is seen in the figure, the three continents America, Asia, and Europe have very high share (about 98.5%) of all patents published in USPTO. The important point is the very low share of Africa in the publication of patents despite the large number of its countries.

Share of Continents in the Publication of Patents in USPTO in 2015

According to statistical investigation by using data gathered from Orbit Database, a total number of 19544 nanotechnology related patents have been published in USPTO in 2015, among which 8588 are granted patents and 10956 are published patent applications. Nanotechnology related patents have a share of about 2.8% of all patents published in USPTO in 2015, which is two times greater than the share of nanotechnology patents in EPO with a share of 1.4%. The following figures show the share of nanotechnology related patents to all patents published in USPTO for the top 10 countries. The countries China and South Korea are among the top 10 countries in this ranking.

Ratio of the number of nanotechnology related published patent applications to all patents published in USPTO for the top 10 countries in 2015

Ratio of the number of nanotechnology related granted patents to all patents published in USPTO for the top 10 countries in 2015