In order to promote a better understanding of the importance of patents rights in the world and the roles of the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japanese Patent Office (JPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a joint annual Trilateral Statistical Report has been developed. Its purpose is to facilitate an understanding of the operations of each Office and to increase the awareness of the patent grant procedures of the three Offices to interested circles in the patent world. It is a compilation of statistics from the EPO, the JPO and the USPTO and is partially based on statistics from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva. The report is a supplement to the separate annual reports of each of the three Offices.
The joint report is one of the fruits of trilateral cooperation.
1. INTRODUCTION
2. GUIDE TO TRILATERAL STATISTICS
3.1 Demand for Patent Rights World Wide
3.2 Demand in the Major Filing Blocs
3.3 Foreign and Domestic Demand
3.4 First Filings
3.5 Demand Between Trilateral Blocs
3.6 Trilateral Patent Families
4. DEMAND AT TRILATERAL OFFICES
4.1 Applications Filed with Trilateral
Offices
4.2 Applications by Fields of
Technology
4.3 Patents Granted by Trilateral
Offices
4.4 Trilateral Patent Procedures
5. OTHER WORK
ANNEX - DEFINITIONS FOR STATISTICS ON PROCEDURES
TABLES
Table 1.1: Production Information EPO
Table 1.2: Production Information JPO
Table 1.3: Production Information USPTO
Table 3.6: Trilateral Patent Families as Proportion of
first filings
Table 4.4.2: Statistics on procedure
Table 5: Statistics on other work
GRAPHS
Graph 1.1: Patents in force in 1996
Graph 1.2: Composition EPO Expenditure 1997
Graph 1.3: Composition JPO Expenditure 1997
Graph 1.4: Composition USPTO Expenditure 1997
Graph 3.1: Demand for patent rights world-wide
1992-1996
Graph 3.2: Demand for patent rights by filing bloc
1992-1996
Graph 3.3.1: Foreign demand per filing bloc
Graph 3.3.2: Domestic demand per filing bloc
Graph 3.4: First filings 1992-1996 per bloc
Graph 3.5: Demand between Trilateral blocs 1996
Graph 3.6: Trilateral patent families
Graph 4.1.1: Total, domestic, foreign filings 1996 and
1997 with Trilateral Offices
Graph 4.1.2: Proportion of applications 1996 and 1997
per country of origin
Graph 4.2.1: Applications by fields of technology
Graph 4.2.2: Proportion of applications in high
technology areas 1996 and 1997 per country of origin
Graph 4.3.1: Patents granted by the Trilateral Offices
in 1996 and 1997
Graph 4.3.2: Proportion of granted patents 1996 and
1997 per country of origin
Graph 4.3.3: Maintenance of granted patents by
Trilateral Offices