- The Media Line - https://themedialine.org -

Israel Still Ranks High on Patents, Despite Slump

Israel maintains its position as the top country in the Middle East filing for patents, despite an overall downward trend, shows UN report.  

A United Nations report on patents ranked Israel top among other countries in the Middle East in terms of the number of patents filed.

The 2009 World Intellectual Property Indicators, released by the United Nations affiliated World Intellectual Property Organization, reveals that Israel ranks in the top 20 countries globally, despite a decrease of 5.8% in Israeli patent registration in the period covered by the report.

A significant percentage, almost 79%, of the patents filed by Israeli companies and persons is so called non-residential – an application filed in a patent office which is not the applicant’s national or regional office.

The large percentage indicates that most of the patents are being filed for use in international markets, especially the United States and the European Union.

“Patent families originating from Canada, China and Israel are more likely to be filed at the patent office of the US,” the report said.

A majority of the patents are for medical technology such as biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Other fields with a larges number of patents include telecommunications and semiconductors.

Israel also ranked number 12 globally on the index for patents filed per gross domestic product.

The ratio of resident patent filings to gross domestic product aims to correct for the effects of country size. When resident patent filings are adjusted for by gross domestic product, countries with low numbers of resident patent filings rank higher than some countries with a high number of resident patent filings.

The report supports assessments of the Israeli economy as small and open, with a focus on export, primarily to the European Union and the United States.

The World Intellectual Property Organization also recently named Israel as one of 15 countries in the world issuing patents that are automatically recognized and accepted by all countries around the world.

“Great work by the Israeli patent office,” Jonathan Topper, an Israeli patent lawyer, told The Media Line regarding the decision.

“The present register has made huge efforts to improve the service of the Israeli patent office,” he said. 

The economy appears to have been resilient to the current economic crisis, despite warnings it would have severe difficulties.
     
‘The Israeli economy has not only proved its resilience to the global recession but
has also showed that it has strong muscle to bounce back,” claimed a recent report from American Bank Merrill Lynch.