South African patenting trends based on the European Patent Office (EPO)’s worldwide patent statistical database (PATSTAT)

Abstract

<title>Abstract</title> This study describes South African (SA) patenting trends based on data from the European Patent Office’s (EPO) patent statistics (PATSTAT) database. We aimed to answer; where, what, and with whom are South Africans patenting over the past 22 years (<italic>i.e.,</italic> 2000 to 2021). By counting the number of patent families and applications per office/authority we described the intensity in patenting. Counting the patents and technology types indicated the focus areas of these patents. We found that the South African patenting landscape is predominantly domestic, with a trend towards otherwise filing at the major patenting offices (<italic>i.e.,</italic> the United States patenting office – USPTO and the EPO). Generally, there has been a decline in filings at international offices since peaking in 2010. Most granted patents were in human necessities (medicine and agriculture) and physical/chemical processes (petroleum). SA inventors collaborated mainly with US, German, and United Kingdom inventors. This may indicate financial non-viability of South African patent filing/ownership (where inventors relinquish their rights for financial gain), outsourcing of South African inventive capacity, or centralised filings by international firms with headquarters outside of SA. The latter may be part of the larger matter of emigration of South African talent/inventive capacity.