Overview of filing routes and patent families of COVID-19 related inventions

Catalina Martínez, Christopher Harrison and Aled Matthews

Chapter 6 in A Modern Guide to Patents, 2025, pp 141-164 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of COVID-19 patenting activity in 2020–2022 for different filing routes, inventor countries, owners, and technology fields. A descriptive analysis of the main trends unveils a preference for the WIPO PCT international filing route for COVID-19 inventions compared to non-COVID-19 inventions and an unequal distribution of COVID-19 inventions over technology fields for different inventor countries. Universities, research institutes, and governments make up much larger proportions of the top patent owners than for non-COVID-19 patents. A more in-depth statistical analysis of the characteristics of COVID-19 patent applications filed via the international PCT route, compared to those filed directly at specific IP offices, highlights significant differences in terms of technology areas and characteristics of owners and inventors. The international PCT route is more likely to be chosen by applicants from the public research sector and for inventions in the pharmaceuticals technology and biotechnology fields.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Patents; Patent analysis; IP strategy; Patent landscaping (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035308590
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