Report Examines Recent Developments at Major Patenting Authorities Worldwide

PHILADELPHIA and LONDON - The Healthcare and Science business of Thomson Reuters today released its 2009 Patent Focus Report. Authored by Joff Wild, editor of Intellectual Asset Management magazine, and published in the Thomson Reuters KnowledgeLink(SM) eNewsletter, this report explores recent activities at each of the world's major patenting authorities (USA, Europe, Japan, China and India).

"The 2009 Patent Focus Report combines expert insight with the stories behind the statistics," said Tim Hamer, SVP Global Marketing Services at Thomson Reuters. "This highly anticipated report discusses the issues facing the world's major issuing authorities and dissects significant patent disputes and their outcomes."

Key findings from the 2009 Patent Focus Report include:

-- For the first time a Chinese company, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, topped the list of Patent Co-operation Treaty applications.

-- The European Patent Office received 140,700 applications in 2007, up over 3% from the year before. In contrast, the number of patents granted fell from 62,800 in 2006 to 54,700 in 2008.

-- The number of patent examiners in India has remained relatively static - raising questions about the quality of patents coming out of the Indian IP Office. In response, at the end of 2008 India announced 414 new examiner posts to be created by 2012.

-- For the second year in a row, the Japan Patent Office reported the lowest level of approved patent applications since the mid-1990s.

-- Patent approval rates at the US Patent and Trademark Office continue to fall to below 50% of applications examined.

Published as part of the customizable KnowledgeLink eNewsletter, the 2009 Patent Focus Report draws on the expertise of Thomson Reuters specialists and guest authors, and delivers unique insight into trends in information management and cutting-edge research for information professionals, research scientists and intellectual property specialists. KnowledgeLink is distributed every two months to subscribers who can register for free and select their customized content at scientific.thomsonreuters.com/news.

The report is available free at http://go.thomsonreuters.com/pfr2009.