Patent Applicants 2024– China Outfiles Australian Residents While LG Maintains Individual Lead

My latest analysis of patent filing data for 2024 confirms a shift that has been years in the making – Chinese applicants have finally overtaken Australian residents to become the second largest source of patent applications, behind only the United States.  This milestone comes as US filings showed a notable decline of 5.7%, while Chinese applications continued their steady growth with a 7.2% increase over the previous year.

Among individual applicants, LG Electronics maintained its position at the top of the table with 229 filings, extending its lead over second-placed Huawei.  The healthcare and medical sector showed particular strength, with companies like Regeneron Pharmaceuticals making substantial gains in the rankings.  Meanwhile, the technology sector saw some significant changes, including the departure of IBM from the top 30 applicants after a brief period of increased activity.

Analysis of the data by industry sector reveals some clear trends, with healthcare and medical applications showing strong growth while technology sector filings declined overall.  However, these broad patterns mask considerable variation at the individual company level, suggesting that strategic considerations, rather than general market conditions, may be driving filing decisions for many of the leading applicants.

So let’s take a look at the numbers in more detail.

Who Were the Leading Filers in 2024?

The table below lists the ‘top 30’ applicants for Australian standard patents, from all countries of origin.  Also shown is each applicant’s ranking in last year’s top 30, colour-coded in green to indicate a rise in ranking, in blue to indicate ‘no change’, and in red for a fall in the rankings.

Rank	2023	Applicant Name	Country	Filings
1	1	LG ELECTRONICS INC	KR	229
2	2	HUAWEI TECH LTD	CN	196
3	=9	REGENERON PHARMACEUTICALS INC	US	162
4	5	SOCIETE DES PRODUITS NESTLE SA	CH	161
5	4	CATERPILLAR INC	US	154
6	7	NICOVENTURES TRADING LTD	GB	118
=7	=9	AMGEN INC	US	113
=7	=12	FISHER & PAYKEL HEALTHCARE LTD	NZ	113
9	6	APPLE INC	US	110
10	16	F HOFFMANN-LA ROCHE AG	CH	102
11	8	HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES INC	US	99
12	=12	ILLUMINA INC	US	86
13	11	BOSTON SCIENTIFIC SCIMED INC	US	81
14	20	ANGEL GROUP LTD	JP	77
15	=23	BASF SE	DE	75
=16	=23	ARISTOCRAT TECH AUSTRALIA PTY LTD	AU	73
=16	=14	TECHTRONIC CORDLESS GP	US	73
18	19	UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA	US	72
19	-	ZTE CORP	CN	71
20	21	ELI LILLY & CO	US	70
=21	17	DEERE & CO	US	67
=21	-	WONDERLAND SWITZERLAND AG	CH	67
=23	-	GILEAD SCIENCES INC	US	65
=23	-	SYNGENTA CROP PROTECTION AG	CH	65
25	-	DEXCOM INC	US	63
=26	=25	BYD CO LTD	CN	60
=26	-	GOOGLE LLC	US	60
28	-	UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS	US	58
28	-	SUNTORY HOLDINGS LTD	JP	58
30	-	ALCON INC	CH	57
30	22	ARISTOCRAT TECH INC	US	57

The following applicants exited the top 30 rankings, with fewer than 57 filings in 2024:

1. Becton Dickinson & Co (2023 – rank 3, 149 filings)
2. IBM (2023 – rank 14, 100 filings)
3. Samsung Electronics Ltd (2023 – rank 25, 72 filings)
4. Carefusion 303 Inc (2023 – rank 27, 71 filings)
5. Genentech Inc (2023 – rank 27, 71 filings)
6. Kimberly-Clark (2023 – rank 29, 69 filings)
7. Haier Smart Home Ltd (2023 – rank =30, 65 filings)
8. Janssen Biotech Inc (2023 – rank =30, 65 filings)
9. United States of America (2023 – rank =30, 65 filings)

Bouquets and brickbats for the most notable changes in filing volumes, while remaining within the top 30 applicants, go to the following companies:

1. largest absolute increase – LG Electronics (+33 filings)
2. largest absolute decrease – Boston Scientific (-27 filings)
3. most significant percentage increase – Regeneron (+36.1%)
4. most significant percentage decrease – Deere & Co (-23.0%)

Korea’s LG Electronics once again topped the table with 229 filings – a significant increase on 2023, but still well below the 283 applications it filed in 2022.  Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei maintained a comfortable hold on second spot, despite its products’ continuing exclusion from Australia’s telecommunications networks after being banned in 2018 on national security grounds.  I suspect that many of its filings relate to telecommunications standards, from which it can draw a reliable royalty stream even if its own equipment is not sold in the Australian market.

Another high-ranking applicant with limited access to the Australian market is Nicoventures, which was established by British American Tobacco to develop and market vapes and other ‘alternative’ tobacco products.  While there is a substantial black market in vaping products, organised criminals are unlikely to be concerned about the risk of patent infringement, and legal supply of these products is highly restricted in Australia.

After placing second in 2022, with 189 applications, but falling to equal 14^th place in 2023 with 100 applications, IBM fell out of the top 30 in 2024.  In recent years, IBM has dropped its focus on being the leading US patent recipient in favour of a more strategic international patenting program.  As a result of its increased filings in Australia over the past few years, IBM received the second largest number of granted patents in 2024 (199), behind LG (294).  Of the 355 applications IBM has filed since the beginning of 2020, 86% (306) have now been granted.  It will be interesting to see whether IBM returns to larger filing numbers in future years.

The sole Australian applicant in the top 30, casino gaming technology developer Aristocrat Technologies Australia, gained seven places while filing exactly the same number of applications (73).  This result reflects the fact that, other than the top five applicants, filing numbers among the leaders were generally down on 2023.  Aristocrat’s US sister company fell from 22^nd in 2023 (with 76 filings) to 30^th in 2024 (with 57 filings).  Meanwhile, New Zealand’s leading applicant, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, once again comfortably out-filed the top Australian, increasing both its filing numbers (from 107 to 113) and its ranking (from equal 12^th to equal 7^th).

As I have noted in previous years, the ‘churn’ of applicants in and out of the lower ranks of the top 30 is a regular occurrence.  This is because there is a relatively large number of applicants that file between 45 and 75 applications, fluctuating by a few tens of applications each year.  In 2024 there were 39 such applicants, compared with 40 in 2023, so it is not surprising to see some familiar names popping in and out of the top 30 every year.

Trends Across Industry Sectors

I have grouped applicants in the top 30 across broad industry sectors, while acknowledging the limitations of this approach given that some companies operate across multiple technological domains.  The four groupings I have identified are: technology and electronics; healthcare and medical; industrial and manufacturing; and food and consumer goods.

Overall, the following trends may be observed across the years 2023 and 2024:

1. the technology and electronics sector has maintained the highest aggregate filing numbers among leading applicants, despite a decline in 2024;
2. the healthcare and medical sector has shown the largest year-over-year filing increase among leading applicants;
3. leading applicants within the Industrial and manufacturing sector experienced a modest, but broad-based, reduction in filings in 2024; and
4. the food and consumer products sector exhibited moderate growth in filings among the leading applicants.

Further details of the numbers, and corresponding key applicants in each sector, are set out in the following summaries.

Technology and Electronics Sector

1. Total filings among top 30: ~1,200 (2023) declining to ~1,000 (2024)
2. Notable applicants in sector:
1. LG Electronics: 196 → 229 (+16.8%), maintaining sector leadership
2. Huawei Technologies: 180 → 196 (+8.9%), strengthening second position
3. Apple Inc.: 130 → 110 (-15.4%), declining but maintaining top 10 presence
4. International Business Machines: 100 → <57 (dropped from top 30)
5. Samsung Electronics: 72 → <57 (dropped from top 30)
6. ZTE Corporation: <60 → 71 (entered top 20)
7. Google: <60 → 60 (entered top 30)

Healthcare and Medical Sector

1. Total filings among top 30: ~700 (2023) increasing to ~900 (2024)
2. Notable applicants in sector:    
1. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals: 119 → 162 (+36.1%), highest growth among top 10
2. Amgen: 119 → 113 (-5.0%), maintaining strong presence
3. F Hoffmann-La Roche: 93 → 102 (+9.7%), improving rank position
4. Boston Scientific: 108 → 81 (-25.0%), significant decline
5. Gilead Sciences: <60 → 65 (new to top 25)
6. Dexcom: <60 → 63 (new to top 25)

Industrial and Manufacturing Sector

1. Total filings among top 30: ~650 (2023) declining to ~600 (2024)
2. Notable applicants in sector:
   1. Caterpillar: 139 → 154 (+10.8%), maintaining strong position
   2. Halliburton: 121 → 99 (-18.2%), significant decline
   3. BASF: ~73-75 (stable filing volume)
   4. BYD Co: 72 → 60 (-16.7%), reduced activity
   5. Deere & Co: 87 → 67 (-23.0%), substantial decline

Food and Consumer Products Sector

1. Total filings among top 30: ~300 (2023) increasing to ~350 (2024)
2. Notable applicants in sector:
   1. Nestle: 135 → 161 (+19.3%), significant growth
   2. Nicoventures Trading: 128 → 118 (-7.8%), moderate decline, but with gain in ranking
   3. Suntory: 58 (new to top 30)

Where Did Most Applications in 2024 Originate?

In 2024, the top 10 countries of origin remained the same.  However, a significant increase in filings from China (again), and a substantial decrease in filings from Germany, resulted in two changes in the overall rankings.  Aside from China, filings from the leading countries of original either remained fairly stable (Australia, Switzerland, Canada) or declined (US, Japan, UK, Germany, South Korea, France).  The numbers, and changes in rankings, are shown in the following table.

Country	Filings	YOY Change
United States (US)	13054	-5.7%
China (CN)	2624	+7.2%
Australia (AU)	2606	+0.9%
Japan (JP)	1497	-10.4%
United Kingdom (GB)	1428	-7.6%
Switzerland (CH)	1265	+1.2%
Germany (DE)	1261	-9.9%
South Korea (KR)	843	-2.7%
France (FR)	731	-9.0%
Canada (CA)	672	-0.6%

As shown in the chart below, Chinese applicants have been threatening to surpass Australians as the second largest users of the Australian patent system for a number of years – and in 2024 it finally happened.

I really have little to add to these two observations that I made last year when predicting that 2024 would be the year that China finally took second place:

First, Australians have long been the second largest users of the Australian patent system.  US applicants have been number one in every year since 1947.  There was a period between 1954 and 1978 when UK applicants also out-filed Australian residents, pushing domestic applicants back to third place.  But Australians have held the number two position for the last four-and-a-half decades.  ….

Second, the rapid growth in filings by Chinese applicants up until 2020 was influenced partly by financial incentives offered by provincial authorities, which were intended to encourage companies to file applications and obtain patents in order to bolster regional innovation metrics.  The Chinese government put a stop to many of these distorting patent subsidies in 2021.  In particular, all funding for patent applications was prohibited from the end of June 2021, while funding for patent grants (which would be relevant to applications already filed) was permitted to continue until 2025.  It is no surprise, then, that any artificially-generated component of Chinese application growth should have come to an abrupt end in 2021.  It is likely that what we are now seeing is more truly representative of genuine commercial interest by Chinese applicants in obtaining patent protection in Australia.

It is interesting that the rise in Chinese filings is not reflected in the list of leading applicants: just three of the top 30 are Chinese companies (Huawei, ZTE and BYD), whereas US applicants fill 16 places in the list.  This indicates China generates smaller numbers of filings, originating from a larger number of applicants – a characteristic that is, of course, also observed in domestic Australian applicants.

Conclusion

The 2024 filing data reveals some shifts in the traditional patterns of patent filings in Australia.  While US applicants remain dominant, their filings declined by 5.7% year-on-year, continuing a gradual erosion of their commanding position in the Australian patent system.  Meanwhile, China's methodical growth in filings – which appears largely organic following the elimination of domestic subsidies in 2021 – has finally pushed it into second place ahead of Australian applicants.

The sectoral analysis reveals some clear winners and losers among the leading filers.  The healthcare and medical sector showed particular strength, with total filings among top 30 applicants increasing from around 700 to 900, while technology and electronics sector filings declined from approximately 1,200 to 1,000.  However, these high-level numbers mask considerable variation at the individual applicant level.  For example, sector leaders like LG Electronics and Huawei both increased their filing numbers despite the overall technology sector decline.

Looking at the data as a whole, perhaps the most striking feature is the continued importance of the Australian market to major international companies across diverse technology sectors, even in cases – such as Huawei and Nicoventures – where their direct commercial presence may be limited. The commitment of resources to Australian patent protection by such firms suggests that the strategic value of Australian patents extends well beyond the ability to participate directly in the local market.

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Before You Go…

Thank you for reading this article to the end – I hope you enjoyed it, and found it useful.  Almost every article I post here takes a few hours of my time to research and write, and I have never felt the need to ask for anything in return.

But now – for the first, and perhaps only, time – I am asking for a favour.  If you are a patent attorney, examiner, or other professional who is experienced in reading and interpreting patent claims, I could really use your help with my PhD research.  My project involves applying artificial intelligence to analyse patent claim scope systematically, with the goal of better understanding how different legal and regulatory choices influence the boundaries of patent protection.  But I need data to train my models, and that is where you can potentially assist me.  If every qualified person who reads this request could spare just a couple of hours over the next few weeks, I could gather all the data I need.

The task itself is straightforward and web-based – I am asking participants to compare pairs of patent claims and evaluate their relative scope, using an online application that I have designed and implemented over the past few months.  No special knowledge is required beyond the ability to read and understand patent claims in technical fields with which you are familiar.  You might even find it to be fun!

There is more information on the project website, at claimscopeproject.net.  In particular, you can read:

1. a detailed description of the study, its goals and benefits; and
2. instructions for the use of the online claim comparison application.

Thank you for considering this request!

Mark Summerfield

Tags: Annual patent data, Australia, China, Patent analytics