WIPO Report Finds China the Lead Origin of Vaccines & Therapeutics-Related Patent Filings

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently held an online conference releasing the "Patent Landscape Report: COVID-19 Related Vaccines and Therapeutics", the first-of-its-kind publication to identify and analyse COVID-19 related patenting activity. The meeting gathered major intellectual property offices including the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), international organisations, and research institutes to discuss and exchange information on technologies research and innovation as well as patent examination related to COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics.

 

According to the report, from the beginning of 2020 until the end of September 2021, close to 5,300 patent applications relating to COVID-19 were filed across 49 patent offices, including nearly 1,500 filings related to therapeutics and over 400 filings related to vaccines. By comparison, from 1941 to 2011 there were just over 500 patent filings related to active ingredients about the influenza vaccines.

 

In terms of patent applicants, both corporates (accounting for 49 percent of the vaccines and 44 percent of the therapeutics data set) and universities and public research organisations (accounting for 44 percent of the vaccines and 41 percent of the therapeutics data set) contributed significantly to the COVID-19 related patent filings during the pandemic period.

 

Regarding the origins of applications, the top 5 applicant locations for patent filings related to vaccines development were China, the US, and Russia, the UK, and India; and the top 5 for patent filings in the field of therapeutics were China, the US, India, Korea, and Russia. As of September 2021, 276 vaccines-related patent applications and 887 therapeutics-related patent applications were filed by Chinese applicants.

 

The report further noted that the world's major IP offices including the CNIPA have offered prioritised or expedited programmes to accelerate the processing time of the COVID-19 patent applications to bring new products to the public quickly, an indication of a global effort over the 21 months to address the challenge brought by the pandemic.