Fourth Industrial Revolution Patent Applications Increasing Fast

A study analyzing patent applications for “fourth industrial revolution” (4IR) technologies – “the global technology trends enabling the data-driven economy” – reveals that in the period 2010-2018 the top 25 applicants together accounted for more than one/third of all international patents. Those included nine Japanese companies, seven US companies and five European companies. Samsung was the leader with over 12,000 international applications, followed by Sony (6,401) and LG (6,290). U.S.-based Qualcomm was fourth with (6,223). 4IR denotes “the full integration of information and communication technologies in the context of manufacturing and application areas such as personal, home, vehicle, enterprise and infrastructure,” and marks a “radical step towards a fully data-driven economy.” The study examined inventions for which patent applications have been filed in two or more patent offices, related to 4IR worldwide. The study revealed that global patent filings for 4IR technologies, including smart-connected objects, Internet of Things, Big Data, 5G, and Artificial Intelligence, grew at an average annual rate of almost 20 percent, nearly five times faster than the average of all technology fields.