PCT: TOP FILERS

Top PCT filing firms revealed Managing IP lists the patent firms filing the most PCT applications in the 14 biggest markets

F

or the second year, Managing IP is publishing a list of the biggest filers of applications for patents filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty based on details of applications published on WIPO’s website (you can read more about the methodology on the right). The data is an important benchmark of firms’ activity in the patent market, particularly since PCT applications are assuming a bigger role in IP owners’ protection strategies. In a report published last month, PCT-administrator WIPO revealed that patent applications under the system had returned to growth after a slump in IP filing activity around the world (see graph below). The increasing use of the PCT system, which allows applicants to seek patent protection in a large number of countries by filing an international application either with their local patent office, with WIPO’s International Bureau in Geneva or with regional patent offices such as the EPO and the African Regional Industrial Property Organisation, suggests growing confidence in the system, particularly from companies based in Asia. Much of that is due to WIPO’s determination to make the system more attractive to users. Director-general Francis Gurry’s roadmap for the PCT, now being implemented by former private practice lawyer James Pooley, deputy director-general for patents at the IP organisation, has seen member state offices chivvied into attaching more weight to reports prepared by International Authorities (IA) within the PCT system. IAs have also agreed to improve the quality of their PCT reports. The system received an additional boost at the start of the year, with the launch of the PCT-PPH, in which the EPO, USPTO and JPO agreed to fast track PCT applications through their existing patent prosecution highways. Pooley says that this idea is so compelling that it has been adopted by countries outside of the trilateral group. Korea has since agreed with the US to give PPH treatment to PCT applications that have received favourable reports by the other country acting as an IA. “So PPH, previously limited to a very small group of countries, may be emerging as a genuinely multilateral approach to worksharing through the PCT, to the benefit of all applicants,” Pooley wrote in Managing IP in July. If WIPO continues to make the PCT more attractive to users, and Asia’s innovators – from Panasonic to Huawei – maintain their enthusiasm for the system, applications filed through the PCT will generate an increasing amount of work for filing firms around the world.

Trend in PCT filings 175,000

150,000

125,000

100,000

75,000

50,000

25,000

0 1978

1980

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2009

WIPO Statistics Database, March 2010 Note: 2009 data are provisional and incomplete. Counts are based on the international filing date. 42

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Methodology The tables listing the top PCT filers published in this article rank firms according to the number of PCT applications that they filed that were due for national stage entry during 2010. The tables are based on details of PCT applications published on WIPO’s website. To compile the tables, PCT applications with a priority date between July 1 2007 and June 30 2008 were extracted. These correspond to applications due to enter the national phase from January 1 to December 31 this year. Once extracted, these applications were sorted according to the law firm or patent agency that filed the PCT application, based on the “agent name” and “agent address” categories in the PCT form. A manual checking process ensured that all cases filed by each firm were included, even where it used different names or addresses during the period in question. The firms are listed in order of the number of applications filed in their jurisdiction. Firms with offices in more than one country may be included in the table in each jurisdiction. The overall table ranks the firms with the most PCT applications worldwide. For the first time, this ranking compiles the filings of a firm’s various offices around the world, putting Marks & Clerk top where it would have been seventh on UK filings alone, for example. Managing IP acknowledges the help of inovia in compiling and verifying the data on which the tables are based. In the interests of full disclosure, comparable statistics relating to the number of PCT applications inovia will introduce into the national stage this year are included in the relevant tables. Managing IP also invited other service providers to submit details of the number of PCT applications they will introduce to the national phase. However none did so. The tables are provided for readers’ information only. Managing IP does not recommend or endorse any particular firms for PCT or other work.

PCT: TOP FILERS

WORLDWIDE RANKING PCT APPS

FIRM NAME

1

888

Marks & Clerk

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

734 717 638 630 605 576 524 512 469 438 408 404 378 365 362 349

18 19 20

343 343 317

AUSTRALIA COUNTRY

UK, France, Singapore Fish & Richardson USA Unitalen Attorneys at Law China inovia USA Shiga International Patent Office Japan Townsend and Townsend and Crew USA Sakai International Patent Office Japan Eikoh Patent Firm Japan Miyoshi & Miyoshi Japan KBK & Associates South Korea Aoyama & Partners Japan Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear USA Foley & Lardner USA Maeda Patent Office Japan Beijing Tingli Patent Agency China YP Lee Mock & Partners South Korea Harakenzo World Patent Japan & Trademark Vereenigde Netherlands Soei Patent & Law Firm Japan Cabinet Lavoix France

RANKING PCT APPS

FIRM NAME

1 X

235

Griffith Hack

2 X

199

Davies Collison Cave

3 X

108

FB Rice & Co

4S

101

Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick

5S

97

Spruson & Ferguson

6S

72

Cullen & Co

7S

69

Fisher Adams Kelly

8T

63

Shelston IP

9S

58

Watermark

10X

49

Wrays

W W W. M A N A G I N G I P. C O M O C T O B E R 2 0 1 0 4 3

PCT: TOP FILERS

CANADA RANKING PCT APPS

FIRM NAME

1 S

173

Gowling Lafleur Henderson

2T

164

Smart & Biggar/Fetherstonhaugh

3T

138

Ogilvy Renault

4T

137

Bereskin & Parr

5T

88

Borden Ladner Gervais

6S

80

Ridout & Maybee

7S

74

Fasken Martineau DuMoulin

8X

52

Oyen Wiggs Green & Mutala

9S

48

Sim & McBurney

10X

43

BCF

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PCT: TOP FILERS

CHINA RANKING PCT APPS

FIRM NAME

1 X

717

Unitalen Attorneys at Law

2S

365

Beijing Tingli Patent Agency

3S

316

Kangxin Partners

4S

254

Beijing ZBSD Patent & Trademark Agent

5S

253

AFD China Intellectual Property Law Office

6S

245

Leader Patent & Trademark Firm

7 X

238

Guangzhou Scihead Patent Agent

8T

167

Beijing Cataly IP Attorney at Law

9T

166

China Science Patent & Trademark Agent

10T

151

Deqi Intellectual Property Law Corporation

10S

151

Beijing San Gao Yong Xin Intellectual Property Agency

FRANCE

GERMANY

ISRAEL

RANKING PCT APPS

FIRM NAME

RANKING PCT APPS

FIRM NAME

RANKING PCT APPS

FIRM NAME

1 S

317

Cabinet Lavoix

1 S

313

ABK Patent Attorneys

1 X

216

Ehrlich & Fenster

2S

290

Cabinet Plasseraud

2 X

270

Epping Hermann Fischer

2 X

204

Reinhold Cohn & Partners

3S

223

Marks & Clerk France 3T

268

97

204

Cabinet Beau de Loménie

Isenbruck Bösl Hörschler Wichmann

3S

4X

Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer

4T

220

Boehmert & Boehmert

4X

93

Sanford T Colb & Co

5T

203

Cabinet Regimbeau 5S

195

Meissner Bolte

5S

85

Webb & Associates

6S

199

Brevalex 6T

163

77

Dr Mark Friedman

192

Cabinet Germain & Maureau

7T

76

Luzzato & Luzzato

7S

158

Grünecker Kinkeldey Stockmair & Schwänhausser Maiwald Patentanwalts

6T

7T

8X

65

Dr Eyal Bressler

8S

149

Hoffmann Eitle 9S

60

Dr D Graeser

9S

146

Pfenning Meinig & Partner

10S

38

Ben-Ami & Associates

8S 9S 10S

163 135 112

Novagraaf Cabinet Ores NONY 10T

46

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139

Mitscherlich & Partner

PCT: TOP FILERS

ITALY

JAPAN

RANKING PCT APPS

FIRM NAME

RANKING PCT APPS

FIRM NAME

1 X

221

Studio Torta

1 X

630

Shiga International Patent Office

2S

198

Jacobacci & Partners

2S

576

Sakai International Patent Office

3 X

182

Bugnion

3 X

524

Eikoh Patent Firm

4T

4S

512

Miyoshi & Miyoshi

155

Barzanò & Zanardo 5T

438

Aoyama & Partners

5S

114

Notarbartolo & Gervasi 6S

378

Maeda Patent Office

6T

93

Modiano & Associati

7T

349

Harakenzo World Patent & Trademark

7S

92

GLP

8T

343

Soei Patent & Law Firm

8T

83

Società Italiana Brevetti

9S

304

Itoh International Patent Office

9S

73

Bianchetti Bracco Minoja

10T

303

Seiwa Patent & Law

10T

52

Buzzi Notaro & Antonielli d’Oulx

11 T

297

Fukami Patent Office

12T

289

Suzuye & Suzuye

13S

284

Okabe International Patent Office

14T

283

Wakabayashi Patent Agency

15X

250

Washida & Associates

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PCT: TOP FILERS

W W W. M A N A G I N G I P. C O M O C T O B E R 2 0 1 0 4 9

PCT: TOP FILERS

KOREA RANKING PCT APPS

NETHERLANDS FIRM NAME

RANKING PCT APPS

FIRM NAME

1 S

469

KBK & Associates

1 X

343

Vereenigde

2T

362

YP Lee Mock & Partners

2 X

240

Nederlandsch Octrooibureau

3S

213

3 X

128

Arnold & Siedsma

4S

184

Sunyoung International Patent & Law Firm S&IP Patent & Law Firm

4X

122

Exter Polak & Charlouis

4X

184

You Me Patent & Law Firm

5X

73

De Vries & Metman

4S

184

Muhann Patent & Law Firm

6X

61

Algemeen Octrooi- En Merkenbureau

7T

172

KJ Lee International Patent & Trademark Office

7 X

46

Patentwerk

8S

23

DeltaPatents

8S

122

Hanyang Patent Firm 9T

22

Howrey

9S

117

Plus Patent Law Office 10S

20

Allied Patents

10T

113

C&S Logos Patent And Law Office

Y.P. LEE, MOCK & PARTNERS (South Korea) Address: Koryo Building, 1575-1 Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea 137-874 TEL: 82-2-588-8585 FAX: 82-2-588-8586 Email address: [email protected] Website address: www.leemock.com Contact Person: Youngpil LEE Key areas of practices: Prosecution and litigation in patents, trademarks, designs, copyrights, computer programs, e-commerce, unfair competition, trade secret and related fields Firm profile: Established in 1985, Y.P. Lee & Associates rapidly grew to become one of the largest and most wellreputed intellectual property law firm in Korea. Since 1990, Y.P. Lee & Associates has filed more overseas applications on behalf of domestic clients than any other firm in Korea. In 2003, Y.P. Lee & Associates and D.S. Mock Patent Office founded in 1950 merged to become Y.P. LEE, MOCK & PARTNERS. The combined firm is comprised of almost 300 employees including around 100 patent and trademark attorneys. With varied backgrounds in each of the disciplines, our patent and trademark attorneys and support staff provide a full range of specialized services in mechanical and electrical engineering, telecommunications, computer software, e-commerce, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, chemical and health care industries. 5 0 O C T O B E R 2 0 1 0 W W W. M A N A G I N G I P. C O M

PCT: TOP FILERS

SWEDEN

SWITZERLAND

RANKING PCT APPS

RANKING PCT APPS

FIRM NAME

FIRM NAME

1 S

298

Albihns Zacco

1 X

69

Isler & Pedrazzini

2T

188

Awapatent

2S

53

Rentsch & Partner

3T

176

Valea

3S

44

Troesch Scheidegger Werner

4X

114

Brann

4S

41

E Blum & Co

5S

91

Bergenstråhle & Lindvall

4T

41

Frei Patent Attorneys

6S

68

Hynell Patenttjänst

6T

36

Bohest

7 X

59

Aros Patent

7S

35

Patents & Technology Surveys

8S

51

Bergenstråhle & Lindvall

8T

31

André Roland

9T

48

Groth & Co

9S

29

OK pat

10T

40

Kransell & Wennborg

10T

27

Hepp Wenger Ryffel

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PCT: TOP FILERS

UNITED KINGDOM

UNITED STATES

RANKING PCT APPS

FIRM NAME

RANKING PCT APPS

1 X

566

Marks & Clerk

1 X

734

Fish & Richardson

2S

177

Page White & Farrer

2 X

638

inovia

3 X

605

Townsend and Townsend and Crew

3S

163

Harrison Goddard Foote

4S

408

Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear

4T

160

Murgitroyd & Company

5T

404

Foley & Lardner

5T

151

Mewburn Ellis

6T

302

Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner

7 X

294

Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman

6S

140

Potter Clarkson

8X

259

Harness Dickey & Pierce

7S

140

Frank B Dehn & Co

9S

256

Nixon Peabody

8S

137

Barker Brettell

10T

245

Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione

11 S

227

Morrison & Foerster

9T

129

Gill Jennings & Every

12T

213

Greenberg Traurig

10T

128

Boult Wade Tennant

13S

208

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

11 S

128

Venner Shipley

14S

201

Patterson & Sheridan

14X

201

Banner & Witcoff

12S

127

Withers & Rogers

16S

195

Lowe Hauptman Ham & Berner

12T

120

AA Thornton & Co

17S

184

Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge

14T

115

Reddie & Grose

18T

182

Fulbright & Jaworksi

19S

180

Cantor Colburn

15T

112

Kilburn & Strode

19T

180

Cooley

FIRM NAME

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