{"id":4304,"date":"2016-10-24T08:49:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-24T12:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cpip.gmu.edu\/?p=4304"},"modified":"2026-04-06T20:35:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:35:05","slug":"new-cpip-report-the-global-patent-pendency-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/2016\/10\/24\/new-cpip-report-the-global-patent-pendency-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"[Archived Post] New CPIP Report: The Global Patent Pendency Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1918 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/cip2.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2012\/08\/iStock_000020099378_Medium-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"dictionary entry for the word &quot;innovate&quot;\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>Why are some of the biggest fights about patent policy almost pointless in some places? Because in many countries, including some of the world&#8217;s most important emerging economies,\u00a0it takes so long to get patents that the rights have little meaning.<\/p>\n<p>The Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property (CPIP) released a report today entitled\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/sls.gmu.edu\/cpip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2016\/10\/Schultz-Madigan-The-Long-Wait-for-Innovation-The-Global-Patent-Pendency-Problem.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Long Wait for Innovation: The Global Patent Pendency Problem<\/a><\/em>. For the first time, this report documents a growing global problem of patent backlogs, which has long been the subject of anecdotal complaints.<\/p>\n<p>In many countries, processing times are eating up much of the 20 year lifespan of patents. Patent offices are failing to keep up with the growth of the innovation economy and the resulting growth in patent applications. It&#8217;s a basic governance problem that threatens to undermine the global patent system.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the report&#8217;s more surprising findings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It now takes over 14 years on\u00a0<strong>average<\/strong>\u00a0to get a patent for mobile technology in Brazil. That goes back to days of flip-phones and the infancy of 3G!<\/li>\n<li>In Thailand, it takes more than 16 years on\u00a0<strong>average<\/strong>\u00a0to get a life sciences patent. In fact, Thailand regularly issues patents with mere months or weeks of life left before expiration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The news isn&#8217;t all bad. Japan has become much faster at examining patents in recent years. The U.S. still does a pretty good job &#8212; but it&#8217;s not the fastest. Interestingly, new leaders\u00a0in global innovation are emerging,\u00a0as Korea and China both now examine patents more promptly than the US.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some further details from\u00a0the new report.<\/p>\n<p>Figure 1 below shows the average granted application age for selected countries 2008-2015 (in years).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4331 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cip2.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2016\/10\/Patent-Pendency-Figure-1.png\" alt=\"patent-pendency-figure-1: Korea 2.8; China 2.9; USA 3.5; Australia 3.6; Egypt 3.8; Japan 5.3; EPO 5.5; India 6.3; Argentina 6.4; Thailand 10.0; Brazil 10.1\" width=\"447\" height=\"239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1670\/2016\/10\/Patent-Pendency-Figure-1.png 447w, https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1670\/2016\/10\/Patent-Pendency-Figure-1.png?resize=300,160 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 447px) 100vw, 447px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Also, our study finds that with regard to specific industries:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The issue of lengthy pendency times for patent applications is not confined to cutting edge industries.<\/li>\n<li>Lengthy pendency is an issue for both the high tech and life sciences industries.<\/li>\n<li>In many industries, some countries\u2019 average wait times render patents largely futile.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Figure 2: Average age of granted life sciences patents\u00a02011-2015 (in years).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4332 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/cip2.gmu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2016\/10\/Patent-Pendency-Figure-2.png\" alt=\"patent-pendency-figure-2 (horizontal range from 0 to 15): China a little above 3; Korea a little farther above 3; USA and Australia around 4; Japan and Argentina (which has an asterisk) closely under 6; Egypt just under 6; EPO slightly beyond 6; India about 7; Brazil just under 12; Thailand around 13\" width=\"355\" height=\"277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1670\/2016\/10\/Patent-Pendency-Figure-2.png 355w, https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1670\/2016\/10\/Patent-Pendency-Figure-2.png?resize=300,234 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 355px) 100vw, 355px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Figure 3: Average age of granted mobile technology patents 2011-2015 (in years).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4333 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1670\/2016\/10\/Patent-Pendency-Figure-3.jpg\" alt=\"patent-pendency-figure-3 (horizontal range from 0 to 15): Australia at 3; USA and Korea about 4; Egypt and China slightly beyond 4; Japan about 4.5; EPO a bit beyond 6; India about 7; Argentina (which has an asterisk) about 8; Thailand just under 12; Brazil around 13.5\" width=\"357\" height=\"271\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1670\/2016\/10\/Patent-Pendency-Figure-3.jpg 357w, https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1670\/2016\/10\/Patent-Pendency-Figure-3.jpg?resize=300,228 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 357px) 100vw, 357px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sls.gmu.edu\/cpip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2016\/10\/Schultz-Madigan-The-Long-Wait-for-Innovation-The-Global-Patent-Pendency-Problem.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-4318 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/sls.gmu.edu\/cpip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2016\/10\/Long-Wait-for-Innovation.png\" alt=\"Cover for &quot;The Long Wait for Innovation: The Global Patent Pendency Problem,&quot; by Mark Schultz &amp; Kevin Madigan (CPIP logo)\" width=\"500\" height=\"647\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>To read the report, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/sls.gmu.edu\/cpip\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2016\/10\/Schultz-Madigan-The-Long-Wait-for-Innovation-The-Global-Patent-Pendency-Problem.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">please click here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why are some of the biggest fights about patent policy almost pointless in some places? Because in many countries, including some of the world&#8217;s most important emerging economies,\u00a0it takes so long to get patents that the rights have little meaning. The Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property (CPIP) released a report today entitled\u00a0The Long [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3627,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,30,1],"tags":[842,889,922,968,1065,1088],"class_list":["post-4304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-innovation-2","category-inventors","category-uncategorized","tag-kevin-madigan","tag-life-sciences","tag-mark-schultz","tag-mobile-technology","tag-patent","tag-patent-pendency"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4304"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16535,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4304\/revisions\/16535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/ualawip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}