Nanotechnology patenting in China and Germany:a comparison of patent landscapes by bibliographic analyses

This article gives a general overview on the patent landscapes of China and Germany within the emerging field of nanotechnology. A keyword based search, using the search term “nano”, on SciFinder Scholar™ for the time period of 1985 to 2007 leads to 51,490 patent references overall and 12,979 Chinese and 2,901 German ones respectively. Bibliographic analyses focus on the historical trends in nanotechnology patenting as well as on major patent applicants, technological fields and international patenting strategies in China and Germany. They illustrate an above-average growth rate in nanotechnology patents for China, but a rather below-average one for Germany. Major differences in regard to the role of universities and research institutes in applied research and therefore as patent applicants are similarly emphasized as diverging international patenting strategies. Implications for future Chinese-German collaborations in applied nanotechnology research and potential improvements for future analyses are discussed.