Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs)
5.6 R&D Output
The technological development and advancement of any country is determined in part by the number of patent applications filed and approvals granted. This section describes the trend in patent applications and approvals based on those filed in Malaysia (Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs) and the United States (US Patent and Trademark Office).
Figure 5.19 shows the number of patents applied for and granted to resident and non-residents for patent filed in Malaysia. Over the years, the total number of patent applications has declined. The total number of patents applied for the period 2001-2002 has dropped compared to the number of applications for the period
1999-2000. A total of 10,871 applications were received for the period 2001-2002 compared to 12,036 and 12,416 for 1999-2000 and 1997-1998, respectively. This decline is largely due to the decrease in the number of applications by non-residents. The number of applications by residents has increased while that of non-residents has decreased by about 15% from 1997- 1998 to 2001-2002. As a result of this, the auto- sufficiency ratio has improved from 0.03 in 1998 to 0.07 in 2002. Similarly, the inventiveness coefficient has also improved from 8.7 in 1998 to 13.1 in 2002.
Corresponding to this improvement, the dependency ratio has dropped from 29.9 in 1998 to 14.3 in 2002.
On the whole, the total number of patents granted for residents and non-residents has increased from 1,126 to 2,962 for the period 1999-2000 and 2001- 2002, respectively. The increase is largely due to the increase in the number of patents approved for non- residents. While the number of applications by residents for the period 2001-2002 has increased by about 60%
compared to 1997-1998 period, there was no corresponding increase in the number of approvals. The number of approved patents was 50 for the period 2001- 2002 compared to 73 for the period 1997-1998. The drop in the number of patents granted is reflected in the auto-sufficiency ratio as it dropped from 0.04 in 1998 to 0.02 in 2002.
Malaysian Science and Technology Indicators 2004 Report 74
Chapter 5 Research and Development Activities
Figure 5.20 shows the number of patents granted by field of technology. The field of chemistry and metallurgy has the highest number (4,115 or 27.91%) of patents granted since 1988. Human necessity had the second highest number (2.643 or 17.86%) of patents granted, followed by performing operations and transporting (2,450 or 16.61%). The field with the least number of patents granted was textiles and paper (197 or 1.34%).
For patents filed in Malaysia, United States had the highest number of applications as well as the number of patents granted in 2001 (1931 patents applied; 530 patents
granted) and 2002 (1538 patent applied; 437 patent granted), followed by Japan (Figure 5.21). Japan had a total of 834 patents granted for the period 2001-2002. Germany ranked third in terms of the number of applications for patents and utility innovations. In the case of Germany, the number of applications was 588 and 439 for 2001 and 2002, respectively. For patents granted, Germany ranked fourth with only 156 patents granted for both years.
Although UK ranked sixth with a total number of applications of 469, the number of patents granted was 159, which placed it as the third highest.
5,591 381
75
Research and Development Activities Chapter 5
Malaysian Science and Technology Indicators 2004 Report
Malaysian Science and Technology Indicators 2004 Report 76
Chapter 5 Research and Development Activities
77
Research and Development Activities Chapter 5
Malaysian Science and Technology Indicators 2004 Report
Malaysia has 593 patent applications for the period 2001-2002 with only 50 patents approved. The overall number of patent applications and patents granted has increased over the period 2001-2002 compared to previous years. This is impressive especially when compared to Australia, a country that have about the same population size. For Australia, the number of applications was 210 and the number of patents granted stood at 70.
Examining the status of patent applications among some of the ASEAN countries, Taiwan, and Republic of Korea shows that Malaysia ranked ahead of these countries followed by Taiwan (320) and Korea (197). Brunei and Philippines had the least number of applications (Figure 5.22).
While the foregoing data about the status of patent applications and approvals
were obtained the Intellectual Property Division, Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Malaysia, Figure 5.23 shows patent applications for various countries, beginning from year 1993 to 2001, based on the data obtained from the Technology Assessment and Forecast (TAF) Database, United States Patent and Trademark Office (US, PTO). US had the largest number of patent filed over the years as well as for the relevant reference periods. This is followed by Japan, Germany and Taiwan. Malaysia had only 268 applications for the period of 1993- 2001. This is to be expected since these patents referred to patents filed in the US.
Compared to Australia, Malaysia has far less patents filed than Australia (5846 patent applications). According to this data source, Singapore has 1195 patents filed, about 4-5 times more than the patents filed by Malaysians.
Malaysian Science and Technology Indicators 2004 Report 78
Chapter 5 Research and Development Activities
79
Research and Development Activities Chapter 5
Malaysian Science and Technology Indicators 2004 Report
5.6.1 Patent Count by Country and Type
The US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) issues several different types of patent documents offering different types of protection and covering different types of subject matter. For a detailed description of the types of patents, please refer Appendix V. Utility patent is the most common, followed by design and plant. It can be said that the most common types of patent are utility and design patents. Again, US ranked as the country with the most number of patents in all types of patents. This is followed by Japan and Germany. Malaysia ranked rather low with only 56 patents comprising 39 utility and 17 design patents. Malaysia did not have other types of patents such as plant, reissue and Statutory Invention Registrations (SIRs) (Figure 5.24). Although Malaysia is far behind Singapore in term of patents granted for 2000 (242) and 2001 (304), it is still ahead of Thailand (2000: 30, 2001: 47) and Philippines (2000: 12, 2001: 15).
Malaysian Science and Technology Indicators 2004 Report 80
Chapter 5 Research and Development Activities
Year
5.6.2 Inventor Awards
Awards won by Malaysian inventors have been increasing over the years, reflecting a positive growth in the inventiveness capacity. In 2001-2002, a total of 72 awards were won compared to 35 in 1999-2000. Especially in Gold Awards, Malaysians won 16 Gold in 2002 representing an improvement of more than 100% over 2001. 20 Silvers and 9 Bronze were won in 2002 (Figure 5.25).