According to the latest Derwent Top 100 Global Innovators report, released by Clarivate Analytics, the emergence of market disrupters is fragmenting the global patent landscape and diluting the invention market share of leading innovators. Rapid change has seen large organizations’ share of global inventions drop to an all-time low of 18%.
Derwent’s annual report identifies the world’s most innovative organizations by reference to indicators such as influence and downstream impact, the overall volume of inventions, and the success of organizations in gaining patents for those inventions. According to Derwent, the top 100 businesses successfully developed patented inventions with strong commercial potential, with the level of investment in those inventions being critical.
In addition, the report also reveals three key trends:
- Six years ago, over a quarter (27%) of all inventions identified by the Derwent World Patents Index came from the top 1,000 entities. Today, this has decreased to 18%. More and more patents are being registered by smaller companies and individual inventors. Large companies must learn to collaborate or risk falling behind.
- Innovation is becoming more knowledge-intensive. As technologies converge, base science and engineering disciplines are more often combined, thereby requiring multiple layers of expertise.
- The threshold score for inclusion in the Derwent Top 100 has increased by over one-fifth (22% over a six-year period). The six new entrants – Fujikura, HTC, Immersion, Microchip, Schneider Electric, and Tencent – have successfully navigated a competitive innovation landscape, rising an average of 250 places since 2015.
“Today’s modern inventions, from phones and electric vehicles to medical devices, all require deeper and broader expertise, and for previously unrelated disciplines to work together,” said Ed White, Head of Analytics, IP Group, Clarivate Analytics. “Large organizations that have traditionally dominated the innovation process must explore and embrace new ways of collaborating if they are to continue to thrive in a more complex and more fragmented ecosystem.”
