Chinese Talent, American Enterprise
② Historically, Most Chinese Inventors of U.S. Biotech Patents Reside in the United States. But More and More Reside in China after 2010.
From 1976 to present, majority of the Chinese inventors of U.S. biotechnology patents report the United States as their country of residence. Beginning in 2010, however, the number of ethnic Chinese inventors who reside in China but file patents in the United States began to accelerate. As Figure 2 shows, the number of Chinese inventors residing in the PRC has surpassed the number of Chinese inventors residing in other countries by 2019.[1]
This may reflect one of two developments: (1) a strengthening of China’s indigenous innovation, or (2) increasing patent filings by the Chinese subsidiaries of more and more American multinationals. These two explanations are not mutually exclusive, but the latter development is worth noting, given that the overwhelming majority of patents continue to be assigned to U.S. companies.
See the following interactive chart for a visualization of the acceleration trend in the number of mainland Chinese inventors reporting China as their residence country in recent years.
[1] Figure 2 is based on innovator-year data. If we use patent-year data, the majority of patents are obtained by those residing in the U.S.
Five Takeaways
