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 |
6,388 |
3.5% |
|
| 2 |
1,599 |
4.4% |
|
| 3 |
1,364 |
4.8% |
|
| 4 |
979 |
1.6% |
|
|
5 |
784 |
5.4% |
|
|
6 |
427 |
2.2% |
|
|
7 |
283 |
4.1% |
|
|
8 |
269 |
3.8% |
|
|
9 |
266 |
3.7% |
|
|
10 |
244 |
16.3% |
|
|
11 |
178 |
3.9% |
|
|
12 |
144 |
2.6% |
|
|
13 |
94 |
4.4% |
|
| 14 |
84 |
5.5% |
|
| 15 |
84 |
2.8% |
|
| 16 |
81 |
4.4% |
|
| 17 |
81 |
3.9% |
|
| 18 |
79 |
8.0% |
|
| 19 |
74 |
4.5% |
|
|
20 |
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
USA
China
South Korea
Japan