Innovation in Industry 4.0 technologies has accelerated quickly worldwide in the last decade as the push towards automation and greater interconnectivity becomes a focal point of manufacturing, a new study from the European Patent Office (EPO) has found.
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The 'Patents and the Fourth Industrial Revolution – the global technology trends enabling the data-driven economy' study looks at all international patent families (IPFs) related to Industry 4.0 worldwide between 2000 and 2018.
Each of these represents a high-value invention for which patent applications have been filed at two or more patent offices globally.
Between 2010 and 2018, global patent filings for such technologies, which concern technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), big data, 5G, and artificial intelligence grew at an annual rate of roughly 20% - five times faster than the average of all technology fields.
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The EPO found the global leaders in Industry 4.0 adoption the last 20 years were the US, Japan, South Korea, China, Germany, the UK and France.
Nearly 40,000 new IPFs were filed for Industry 4.0 technologies in 2018 alone, accounting for more than 10% of all patenting activity worldwide that year.
EPO President António Campinos said: "Constellations of smart, connected devices, faster wireless internet, big data and AI are transforming the global economy and having a profound impact across many sectors, from manufacturing to healthcare to transport.
"What we are seeing is not just an acceleration of the development of information and communications technology – it is a major shift towards a fully data-driven economy. While Europe is not growing as fast as other regions, our strength lies in the diversity of our innovation ecosystem, the strong performance of some of our smaller countries with their high levels of specialisation, and some innovative regional clusters."
According to the study, the US remains the world leader in Industry 4.0 technology integration and patenting, accounting for one-third of all invention filed between 2000 and 2018, compared with Japan and Europe accounting for one-fifth each.
Within Europe, Germany accounted for 29% of all patents filed - more than twice that of the UK at 14.9% and France with 12.5%. However, the data suggests the annual growth of all of the European contenders is well below the global average.
In the UK, the spread of Industry 4.0 concepts and technologies is evenly distributed across all three sectors of core technologies, with some specialization in enabling technologies such as AI and data security.
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According to the study, the UK is bucking the trend across European nations, which appear to have a generally low distribution of Industry 4.0 concepts among core technologies. Coincidentally, 50% of all Industry 4.0 technologies originating from the UK are owned by foreign companies such as Nokia, Sony or IBM.
Innovation appears to be concentrated in regional clusters around the world. The global rankings are topped by 13 Asian and US clusters, followed by seven clusters located in Europe and the Middle East.
All US and Asian clusters in the top 10 saw strong growth between 2010 and 2018, with the cluster centres around Beijing achieving the highest increase of patent filings, representing an average annual growth of 30%.
In contrast, top clusters in Europe and Japan have experienced lower average annual growth in patenting during the same period. London, at number 16, accounted for 1.1% of global Industry 4.0 patent applications and posted average annual growth of 12.9% between 2010 and 2018.
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