Original links are included though some may have expired.

The Numbers:

Patents in force, 2005 (in thousands):

Worldwide:	5,600
In Japan:	1,614
In U.S.:	1,215
In Korea:	353
In Canada:	56
In Switzerland:	53
In Latin America:	9
In Arab world:	2

What They Mean:

Patent data tell three stories about the world of the early 21st century:

1.) Most patenting is done in rich countries. The World Intellectual Property Organization's most recent survey, dating to December 2007, finds about 5.6 million patents in force around the world as of 2005. Each year the total grows by about 200,000, as roughly 600,000 new patent applications are approved and 400,000 old ones expire. About half of all patents are in Japan and the United States -- 1.6 million in Japan and 1.2 million in the U.S. -- while Korea, Germany, France, Spain, China, Canada, and Russia add another 2.3 million. (Note that WIPO's tables seem not to distinguish between Taiwan and mainland China). Smaller wealthy countries account for most of the rest -- Australia counts 28,000 patents in force; Canada 56,000; Switzerland 53,000, Finland 29,000; Israel 12,000; and the Netherlands 50,000.) Americans and Japanese are also the most prolific patent filers worldwide, with Koreans and Germans next. American firms and scientists file the most patents in chemical engineering, telecommunications, and IT patents; Japanese lead in audiovisual, electronics, analysis and measuring technologies, consumer goods, and food processing.

2.) Developing countries do far less patenting. WIPO's report finds India with only 2,682 patents in force, and its combined count for neighboring Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka is only 23. Southeast Asia's 3,387 total was higher, but 2,619 were in wealthy Singapore and another 420 in Malaysia; the eight other ASEAN members combined for 378. Arab countries counted 2,318 patents, but 1,992 are in Morocco and only 316 in other Arab countries; Iran had only 10 patents in force. Africa is similar -- South Africa has 2,486 patents in force, while the rest of the continent has only 137. Latin America's 8,864 patents included 5,500 in Brazil and 1,978 in Mexico; the Caribbean islands had 416.

3.) Asian science and engineering is rising fast. Here the telling figures come from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which (unlike WIPO's report) distinguish between mainland China and Taiwan and allow analysts to go back in time by covering U.S. and foreign patent applications since 1965. In 1980, for example, Koreans filed only 33 patent applications and Taiwanese 367; by 2000 the respective totals were 5,705 and 9,046. In 2006, Korean patent applications totaled nearly 22,000 -- just a shade below the German total and above any other European country -- and Taiwan was above 19,000. Japan, Korea and Taiwan now account for well over half of all foreign patent applications. The recent data seem to presage an even larger Asian surge, as India and China become science and technology powers: the two giants together accounted for 180 patent applications in 1990; 900 in 2000; and nearly 6,000 as of 2006. Altogether, Asia is now the source of a third of the PTO's patent applications.

Further Reading:

WIPO's 2007 report on world patenting trends:
http://www.wipo.int/ipstats/en/statistics/
patents/patent_report_2007.html

Some patent offices around the world:

Japan's Patent Office is the busiest in the world:
http://www.jpo.go.jp/

Germany's patent office, the Deutches Patent- und Markenamt, leads in Europe:
http://www.dpma.de/

Morocco's tetralingual patent office is the busiest in the Arab world:
http://www.ompic.org.ma/section/home.xml

India's patent office is approaching its millionth online visitor:
http://www.patentoffice.nic.in/

Samples -- Some recent foreign-resident patents approved at the PTO: an Icelander's invention of a device to ease the shock of movement of prosthetic limbs, a Mexican "vibration isolating bushing with embedded angular position sensor," Hong Konger Brian Sun's new corkscrew, a new semiconductor die package from the Philippines, a tent-shaped electric toaster from Mr. Atil Kizilbayir of Istanbul, a group of Saudi technicians have a device for drilling complex-branched oil wells, and a customized food and drink tray from Mynor Albert Say Ulin of Guatemala City:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/patog/
week20/OG/geography.htm

A look back -- The United States was an early advocate of international patent rights, honoring patent applications from non-resident foreigners since 1836. (Though the early law was discriminatory and oddly anti-British. It imposed a $30 patent filing fee on Americans, a $300 fee for foreigners generally, and a $500 fee for English, Irish, and Scots.) In copyright, by contrast, 19th-century America was a sort of black hole for foreign authors, with local publishers grabbing and reprinting their books at will. An infuriated Charles Dickens denounces American copyright pirates:
http://charlesdickenspage.com/copyright1842.html

SPECIAL NOTE

Asia has suffered two horrific disasters in the last month: the Sichuan earthquake and the Burmese cyclone. The earthquake's death toll is above 60,000, and the cyclone's is above 100,000 and been vastly worsened by Burmese military junta inaction. Those wishing to donate money or tangible assistance have some options:

• The Chinese Embassy in Washington suggests two national charity groups -- the Chinese Charity Federation and China's Red Cross Society -- as options for financial assistance to the relief effort, and has an embassy donation center as well:
  http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/xw/t434820.htm



• Mingalarama Vihara, the Washington, D.C., area's Burmese Buddhist temple, has a collection for non-political Burmese cyclone relief:
  http://mingalarama.org/cyclone_relief_fund.php