Global patent system is key to the econ and the international order

In the 140 years since the signing of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in 1883, international tools and instruments have been developed that aim toward common standards in a process that continues to this day, as the recent launch of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) attests. Other examples include the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and the TRIPS Agreement, together with various regional registration systems, including the European Patent Convention (EPC) and African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO).

Through these achievements and many more, the global patent system has supported innovation and driven enormous social and economic advances. And while the rigor of national procedures varies, the patent procedural ecosystem as a whole is clearly still fit for its dual purpose of safeguarding the interests of inventors and disseminating knowledge.

Yet, despite the steady movement toward greater cooperation and harmonization, our current framework faces strong and somewhat unexpected challenges from rising demand, disruptive technologies and geopolitical pressures. Inevitably, it will need to adapt while retaining the core strengths of time-tested processes.

When "demand" becomes "burden"

According to the 2022 edition of World Intellectual Property Indicators from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), there were 3.4 million patent applications worldwide in 2021, an increase of 3.6% on the previous year and higher than the pre-COVID peak of 3.3 million in 2018.

The growth in patent filings is partly a story of ascendant economies, as inventors and businesses from developing countries perceive the value of these Intellectual Property (IP) rights and increasingly accede to them. Notably, China's 1.56 million patent applications accounted for nearly 50% of global filings in 2021, while the country was responsible for almost 98% of the 2.9 million utility model applications filed that same year. To put such outlier statistics into perspective, the number of patent applications received by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) is similar to the total of the next 12 IP offices combined.

It is not just China that is seeing significant growth. In 2021, India became the sixth-ranked IP office for patent applications, while filings increased by 63.9% in South Africa, 18.3% in Israel and 12.9% in Mexico. This expansion of patent activity is welcome, demonstrating that the relevance of patents is understood and that they are available to inventors in developing and traditional markets. However, this internationalization of patents places new strain on existing systems.

Firstly, the unprecedented volume of applications makes searching prior art and determining novelty much harder. This difficulty is compounded by the increased diversity of languages used in specifications and the need to access records in IP offices in many jurisdictions. Another problem of particular relevance to national offices of smaller countries is that swelling application numbers occasionally cause delays in publishing patent applications, with the potential knock-on effect of wasting R&D efforts.

These hurdles impact patent applicants, IP offices and third parties relying upon accurate published patent information, albeit unequally. As mentioned, researchers can be adversely affected by a general slowdown in the disclosure of technological progress, and all inventors experience rising costs from more voluminous search results. Inflation in services demand and currency differentials compel IP offices to increase official fees to boost their examining capacity and cover mounting overheads. As compelling and unavoidable as causal economics may be, a commercial viability threshold must not be breached, lest deserving innovators get gradually priced out of IP rights acquisition