Visualizing AI Patents by Country

The New Diplomat
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By Marcus Lu

This infographic shows the number of AI-related patents granted each year from 2010 to 2022 (latest data available). These figures come from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), accessed via Stanford University’s 2024 AI Index Report.

From this data, we can see that China first overtook the U.S. in 2013. Since then, the country has seen enormous growth in the number of AI patents granted each year.

Year China EU and UK U.S. RoW Global Total
2010 307 137 984 571 1,999
2011 516 129 980 581 2,206
2012 926 112 950 660 2,648
2013 1,035 91 970 627 2,723
2014 1,278 97 1,078 667 3,120
2015 1,721 110 1,135 539 3,505
2016 1,621 128 1,298 714 3,761
2017 2,428 144 1,489 1,075 5,136
2018 4,741 155 1,674 1,574 8,144
2019 9,530 322 3,211 2,720 15,783
2020 13,071 406 5,441 4,455 23,373
2021 21,907 623 8,219 7,519 38,268
2022 35,315 1,173 12,077 13,699 62,264

In 2022, China was granted more patents than every other country combined.

While this suggests that the country is very active in researching the field of artificial intelligence, it doesn’t necessarily mean that China is the farthest in terms of capability.

Key Facts About AI Patents

According to CSET, AI patents relate to mathematical relationships and algorithms, which are considered abstract ideas under patent law. They can also have different meaning, depending on where they are filed.

In the U.S., AI patenting is concentrated amongst large companies including IBM, Microsoft, and Google. On the other hand, AI patenting in China is more distributed across government organizations, universities, and tech firms (e.g. Tencent).

In terms of focus area, China’s patents are typically related to computer vision, a field of AI that enables computers and systems to interpret visual data and inputs. Meanwhile America’s efforts are more evenly distributed across research fields.

Learn More About AI From Visual Capitalist

If you want to see more data visualizations on artificial intelligence, check out this graphic that shows which job departments will be impacted by AI the most.

Source: Visual Capitalist 

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