To better understand the rates at which individual inventors are filing patent applications versus those submitted by companies, MaxVal reviewed applications submitted to the USPTO, the CNIPA, and the EPO. Our research showed that individual inventors account for about 9% of US patent filings, compared to 8% of Chinese patent filings (not including utility models). At the EPO, individual inventors account for just 4% of registrations.
Table 1: Filing Rates Individual vs. Companies
USPTO, CNIPA and EPO Individual Inventor Filings
There has been a notable decrease in the percentage of filings by individual inventors at the CNIPA, falling from 20% of the total filings in 2019 to just 8% in 2023. A similar downward filing trend can also be observed at the USPTO and the EPO by individual inventors over the same period.
Figure 1: Percentage of Individual Inventors over the Last 5 Years
Companies vs. Individual Inventors – US, CNIPA and EPO
In the last five years, while companies have been submitting more patents to the USPTO, there has been a decrease of about 13% in the number of patents filed by individual inventors at the USPTO.
At the CNIPA, there has been a significant 40% drop in the number of patents submitted by individual inventors over the last 5 years.
Similar to the trends observed in the US and China, the European Patent Office (EP) has also seen a decreasing percentage of filings by individual inventors over the past five years. However, the total number of filings in 2023 has increased by 25%, rising from approximately 8,000 filings in 2022 to around 10,000 filings in 2023.
Figure 2: Companies vs. Individual Inventors (Last 5 years)
Grants vs. Withdrawals
At the USPTO, the percentage of granted patents across companies and individuals is similar. But individual inventors are more than twice as likely to withdraw their filings, with an estimated rate of withdrawal around 15%.
Surprisingly, at the CNIPA patents filed by individual inventors are more likely to be granted and are less likely to be withdrawn. That said, it is worth noting that about 22% of patents filed by individual inventors have expired due to non-payment.
At the EPO, individual inventors have a higher rate of withdrawal and are less likely to have their patents granted when compared to patents filed by companies.
Figure 3: Grants vs. Withdrawals
Technological Priorities
Across regions, companies and individual inventors have different technological priorities. Below are the top technologies over the past 5 years for companies versus individual inventors at the USPTO, CNIPA, and EPO, respectively.
Table 2: Top Technologies Filed at USPTO, CNIPA and EPO
Note: In the table above, the common technologies between companies and individual inventors (for patent filings) at the USPTO, CNIPA and EPO are shown in blue, yellow and green, respectively.
Conclusion
In the US, individual inventors account for 9% of patent filings, with a 13% decrease in the last five years and a 15% withdrawal rate. In China, they make up 8% of filings, with a 40% drop and a 22% expiration rate due to non-payment. In Europe, individual inventors account for 4% of filings, with a recent 30% increase but higher withdrawal and lower grant rates compared to companies. While the focus of individual inventors mirror that of companies within each region, the technological focus between regions remains fairly unique.
