Asia has widened its lead in global innovation according to the Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators 2018-19 report published today by Clarivate Analytics, the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate discovery. Utilizing proprietary Derwent patent data, tools and technology, this annual report identifies and celebrates the world’s most innovative organizations who successfully develop valuable patented inventions that also have strong commercialization potential based on originality, market reach, and opportunities for spin-off inventions.
Now in its eighth year, Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators utilizes editorially enhanced, authoritative and accurate patent data from Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) and Derwent Patent Citations Index (DPCI) to track innovation based on four indicators:
- Volume: The organization must have had at least 100 inventions protected by a granted patent in the past five years.
- Success: There must be a high ratio of success in obtaining patent grants.
- Globalization: The organization must maintain globalization or international breadth of patent filings across Europe, China, Japan, and the U.S.
- Impacts: The organization’s innovations must have an impact by being highly cited externally by other organizations.
“By focusing on developing high-quality innovation and cutting-edge technologies, the Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators are leading the way in creating compelling solutions to both current and future challenges. They understand that intellectual property is the bridge connecting innovation to economic growth and we are proud to acknowledge their contributions to enriching our future,” said Dan Videtto, President, Derwent at Clarivate Analytics.
Following last year’s trend, the epicenter of global innovation continues to shift from west to east. Asia leads the Top 100 list with 48 companies, while the United States follows with 33 companies and Europe with 19. This year’s report also features seven companies appearing for the first time: BYD, Cisco, JFE Steel, Kaspersky Lab, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Quanta Computer, and Xiaomi.
The analysis determined three key trends among this year’s Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators:
- Continued focus on high impact innovation:
The nature of innovation has shifted to focus on higher quality inventions with wider potential markets and greater potential to be leveraged for future development. Inventions that have multiple granted patents and have been highly cited by later published inventions fall into this category. - China continues to pick up momentum:
Mainland China’s drive to transform its economy from manufacturing to knowledge-based has increased the number of Chinese companies appearing on the Top 100 Global list. - Hot technology:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Fifth generation (5G) mobile telecommunications are two rapidly growing sectors. Thirty-one companies identified in this year’s Top 100 Global Innovators list have AI inventions as a major part of their portfolios and innovations from the Top 100 hi-technology sectors in 5G have climbed to over 900 patent families in 2018.
Bob Stembridge, Patent Analyst at Clarivate Analytics and report contributor, said, “Tracking patent activity gives a detailed picture of an organization’s commitment to innovation through analyzing its inventions with potential for commercialization. This year’s findings show that leading organizations continue to differentiate themselves through a laser-focus on high-value and high-impact innovation and a full embrace of emerging technologies.”
Industry Sector and Regional Snapshot:
The Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators 2018-19 are from three continents and 12 countries/regions namely, Japan, the U.S., France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden, and Switzerland have been represented on the list since the report was first published in 2011. These regions are joined by Taiwan for the sixth consecutive year, Mainland China for the fourth time and Finland for the third year. Russia joined the list for the first time this year with the inclusion of the software company, Kaspersky Lab.
Representation among the different industry sectors is remarkably stable this year. The Hardware & Electronics industries lead the way with 35 organizations – just one more than last year. Other notable changes in industry representation include the number of Aerospace & Defense organizations doubling from 3 to 6 and minor decreases in the number of Chemicals & Cosmetics, Pharmaceuticals and Oil, Gas & Energy representatives.
Additional findings and the full list of the Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators 2018-19 can be found here: www.clarivate.com/top100innovators
