We analyze the increasing globalization of worldwide research and development (R&D) with a focus on emerging countries, by using patent data as a proxy. The number of host-country patents has skyrocketed in the emerging countries, for example, the number of US patents created with foreign inventors in China and India has more than decupled between 2000 and 2013. At the same time, emerging countries, such as China, Korea, India, Israel, Brazil, and Russia have significantly increased their patenting efforts, with China attaining rank 3 with more than 10% of all worldwide Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT) patents in 2013, up from position 9 in 2000. Thereby, the former dominance of the Triadic countries has been reduced considerably. We conclude that the flow of innovation in emerging countries is not a one-way street anymore, but rather goes in both directions.
Part of the book: Intellectual Property Rights