06.26.15
It may be a small country, but Australia certainly can hold its own in the global medtech patenting race.
A recent study by IP Australia identified 139,170 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications filed globally in the medical devices area with a priority date between 2001 and 2012. Of these applications, 2,706 had an Australian inventor. The United States dominated medical device patenting with nearly half of the PCT applications -- defined as having an inventor from America.
The analysis revealed that over the period studied, Australia generated around 2 percent of the global medical device inventions based on inventor participation, ranking Australia 13th worldwide.
Of the 48 countries analysed, 14 were considered to have a specialization in medical devices. Of these countries, Australia ranked eighth.
The majority of Australian medical device inventions originated from New South Wales (50 percent) followed by Victoria (21 percent), Queensland (12 percent) and South Australia (6 percent). This correlates with the location of medical device companies across Australia with 55 percent located in New South Wales, 24 percent in Victoria and 12 percent in Queensland.
Geographical coverage
The 2,706 Australian-originating PCT applications analysed gave rise to 10,812 "national phase" applications, of which 3,397 have led to granted patents. The most popular national phase filing countries were the United States, Australia, the European Union, Japan, China and Canada. These may be regarded as countries having favourable markets for medical device products as well as a favourable attitude to intellectual property rights, analysts concluded.
Collaboration
Over the period studied, the number of Australian inventions involving a foreign inventor varied between 13 percent and 24 percent. The United States, Germany and the United Kingdom supplied the largest number of collaborating inventors to Australian inventions, according to data. China ranked eighth for collaboration, with Australia ranking ahead of Sweden, Canada, France and Singapore. Research entities were the most collaborative of all the applicants considered in the study.
Key areas of innovation
As part of IP Australia’s analysis, keywords in the title and abstract were used to visually map hotspots of innovation. This revealed the areas of most prolific Australian medical device development to include:
The top five medical device filing universities during the period studied were:
A recent study by IP Australia identified 139,170 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications filed globally in the medical devices area with a priority date between 2001 and 2012. Of these applications, 2,706 had an Australian inventor. The United States dominated medical device patenting with nearly half of the PCT applications -- defined as having an inventor from America.
The analysis revealed that over the period studied, Australia generated around 2 percent of the global medical device inventions based on inventor participation, ranking Australia 13th worldwide.
Of the 48 countries analysed, 14 were considered to have a specialization in medical devices. Of these countries, Australia ranked eighth.
The majority of Australian medical device inventions originated from New South Wales (50 percent) followed by Victoria (21 percent), Queensland (12 percent) and South Australia (6 percent). This correlates with the location of medical device companies across Australia with 55 percent located in New South Wales, 24 percent in Victoria and 12 percent in Queensland.
Geographical coverage
The 2,706 Australian-originating PCT applications analysed gave rise to 10,812 "national phase" applications, of which 3,397 have led to granted patents. The most popular national phase filing countries were the United States, Australia, the European Union, Japan, China and Canada. These may be regarded as countries having favourable markets for medical device products as well as a favourable attitude to intellectual property rights, analysts concluded.
Collaboration
Over the period studied, the number of Australian inventions involving a foreign inventor varied between 13 percent and 24 percent. The United States, Germany and the United Kingdom supplied the largest number of collaborating inventors to Australian inventions, according to data. China ranked eighth for collaboration, with Australia ranking ahead of Sweden, Canada, France and Singapore. Research entities were the most collaborative of all the applicants considered in the study.
Key areas of innovation
As part of IP Australia’s analysis, keywords in the title and abstract were used to visually map hotspots of innovation. This revealed the areas of most prolific Australian medical device development to include:
- Syringe development
- Vision, eye and lens-related innovation
- Implants including implantable joints and prostheses
- Surgical and orthopaedic devices
- Catheters and cardiac inventions
- Dental devices
- Electromedical and diagnostics including magnetic and ultrasound imaging and implantable neurostimulation
- Computer-related medical inventions, and
- Tissue engineering and cardiac inventions.
- Telemedicine
- Polymeric coatings and tissue sealants
- Dry aerosol delivery
- Microwave-based and acoustic energy-based blood flow monitoring
- Image processing
- Motion and mobility monitoring, and
- Alzheimer’s assessment.
The top five medical device filing universities during the period studied were:
- University of Queensland
- University of Sydney
- Queensland University of Technology
- Monash University, and
- University of New South Wales.