Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Sep 28.
Published in final edited form as: Nanomedicine. 2015 Sep 30;12(1):13–19. doi: 10.1016/j.nano.2015.09.007

Table 2.

Numbers of nanotechnology-related patent applications to either USA or China patent offices during 1991–2008, and in the year 2000 and 2008, respectively. Also listed are the top five applicant countries and institutions in USA or China that originated the most patent applications to the patent offices.19

Country (Number of Applications) Rank Applicant country Numbers of nanotechnology patent applications from the applicant country (1991–2008) Applicant institution Numbers of nanotechnology patent applications from the applicant institution (1991–2008)
Totals 2000 2008 Totals 2000 2008
USA (19,665) 1 USA 12,606 285 2288 IBM 277 11 54
2 Japan 1866 42 308 Univ California 209 11 29
3 South Korea 1272 6 343 Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. 172 0 69
4 Germany 1048 23 168 Hon Hai Prec Ind Co. Ltd. 157 0 54
5 Taiwan region 839 7 175 Ind Tech Res Inst 106 3 15
China (18,438) 1 China 16,348 85 4409 Chinese Academy of Sciences 1155 14 312
2 USA 805 3 260 Zhejiang Univ 464 3 129
3 South Korea 327 5 80 Tsing Hua Univ 461 2 91
4 Japan 301 2 64 Shanghai Jiaotong Univ 409 3 75
5 Germany 145 3 43 Fudan Univ 317 3 81