I read through most of the paper highlighted today in a bit of harrumph.
What I thought Andrew W. Torrance (et al.), from the University of Kansas School of Law writing in an article for the Houston Law Review, was trying to do was set up a ‘straw man’ argument to tear it down.
In 2003, for the first time ever, China filed more patents globally than the U.S. This was reported in 2024 and has led to a flurry of articles from haters and friends with very different takes on what this means.
Haters (in which camp I mistakenly thought Mr. Torrance was) have countered as a lot of these patents are for ice cream flavors and better bottle caps they’re somehow not ‘real’. Friends on the other hand have purred this shows China’s inevitable overtaking of a sclerotic West.
Congratulations to Mr. Torrance for providing useful analysis that begins highlighting the bottle-cap nature of a lot of China’s patents but then goes on to some more thoughtful analysis.
Yes, China has achieved a volume advantage but a closer analysis shows America still the clear leader in really useful patents in the six tech domains: electro/mechanical, software, semiconductors, medical devices, bio/pharmaceutical and visualization technologies.
Yes, also, China’s progress has been in large part spurred by a top down drive from Chinese authorities so doesn’t represent some kind of bottom up technical Renaissance driven by an ever striving corporate sector.
But the article (you can read it in full here Is China’s Patent Boom A Bust?) concludes; “[Rather than a defensive or protectionist response] .., a more beneficial outcome for the welfare of the world, including humanity, would be for other countries to learn from the impressive example of China’s patent rise, and to redouble their efforts to compete by engaging in high-quality innovation, and by fostering and protecting such innovation at least in part with important patents.”
Recognize the challenge is the message, and rise to it! Belittling or dismissing this trend is not the way to go. Those who do (my two pennyworth here) run the risk of making the centuries old strategic failure of underestimating a rising power*.
Happy Sunday
* Japan’s first attempt at introducing cars to the U.S.
Then they got better, a lot better.