Impact of international patent applications on patent indicators

Abstract

International patent applications, according to the Patent Co-operation Treaty, enjoy increasing popularity, as they provide various advantages for the applicants. The enormous growth of this type of application path has a relevant impact on patent statistics and therefore on patent indicators. The most problematic aspect is the delayed transfer of international applications to the national or regional office of destination, leading to an underestimation of recent application numbers. The article suggests a projection method compensating this effect in a reliable way.