In 2022, for the second year running, the number of standard patent applications filed in Australia exceeded 30,000. While there was a slight decline of 0.5% compared with 2021, filings remained at a historic high. This was, however, primarily due to continuing growth of nearly 1% in applications originating overseas. Applications from Australian residents fell by 16.6%, returning to around the same level as between 2016 and 2020 following a bumper year in 2021 that was driven substantially by applicants wishing to secure a filing date prior to the phase-out of the innovation patent system. Also disappointing was a continuing decline in the number of provisional applications filed. Provisional filings have not been as low as they are now since the mid-1980s.
The United States remained the largest source of new Australian patent applications, by a large margin, accounting for 46% of all filings. Australian residents held on to second position, despite the significant drop in filings, as the number of applications from China fell for the first time in more than two decades. The top 10 remained the same overall, with the UK and South Korea each gaining a position, at the expense of Germany and France. The UK is now in fifth place, and only marginally behind fourth-placed Japan, following two consecutive years of strong growth in filings.
Australia’s poor patenting performance continues to be a concern. It is not just about resident applications, and there are a number of other metrics – including filings in other jurisdictions and various other innovation indicators – that consistently point to Australian underperformance in the identification, protection, management and commercialisation of technological innovations. This is an area in which Australia needs to do better.