5. Patent Analysis and Forecast on Certain Technology Fields

5.1 Patent Analysis on Water Treatment

Water treatment refers to water, sewage or wastewater and sludge treatment, and it is an important component of environment technology. From 2000 to September 2006, 6,107 invention patent applications relating to water treatment (wherein 822 were PCT applications) were filed in China, indicating an annual growth rate of 10%. Fig.10 shows the development of domestic patent applications for invention excluding PCT ones.

Fig.11 shows the distribution of patent applications for invention in China by country excluding PCT applications from 2000 to September 2006; Fig.12 shows the distribution of PCT applications by country from 2000 to September 2006. The conclusion can be drawn from the above figures that domestic applications account for 89.9% of total patent applications for invention in China excluding PCT ones. In PCT applications, domestic applications only account for 0.9%, while applications from USA and Japan were 29.6% and 24.1% respectively, which made a total of over half. This reflects the fact that industrialized countries, represented by USA and Japan, are in favor of PCT, while more attention to it are required for China.

Fig.13 shows the percentage of domestic applications according to the main water treatment technology from 2000 to September 2006; Fig.14 shows the percentage of PCT applications according to the main water treatment technology from 2000 to September 2006. The figures indicate that, in domestic applications and PCT applications, patent applications for circulating and regenerating water resource account for 22.3% and 14.8% of the total respectively, and the percentages of patent applications for water treatment device and apparatus in domestic applications and PCT applications are 37.9% and 44.7% respectively. In the remained technical fields, the percentages of patent applications in domestic applications and PCT applications are quite close. This reflects that domestic applications have covered major technologies of water treatment, and increasing importance is drawn to rational utilization of water resource, circulating and regenerating. However, it also exposes a disadvantage of inadequate patent applications for water treatment device and apparatus in domestic applications.

China is a developing country with water shortage. As the population continues to increase and economy keeps quick development, the conflicts between water shortage and water pollution will remain severe. It is expected that patent applications for treatment, reuse and resource recovery of municipal sewage and industrial wastewater will be further increased. At the same time, with accelerated urbanization and improved living standard in China, the technologies relating to water purify, especially water purify medicament, water purify device and water quality detect apparatus, will become the focus of future patent applications.

5.2 Analysis on Patent Applications Related to Utilization of Geothermal Resources

As a clean, re-generable new energy, geothermal energy gains increasing concerns all over the world. From 2000 to September 2006, the amount of patent applications on geothermal energy utilization in China was 616 with an annual increase about 68%. Among them, 15 were PCT applications and 63 were foreign applications, accounting for about 10% of total. Among the foreign applications, 39 were filed by US and Japanese applicants, accounting for 62% of the total foreign applications in China. Fig.15 shows the amount variety of the invention patent and utility model applications in China from 2000 to December 2005.

Fig.16 shows application distribution by country of geothermal energy utilization (excluding PCT) from 2000 to September 2006. Domestic applications took 90% of the total amount. There was no Chinese application in PCT applications.

Fig.17 shows the distribution of invention patent and utility model applications by technical field on geothermal energy utilization from the year 2000 to September 2006. The figure reveals that patent applications on geothermal heat pump and air conditioner amount to 46%, patent applications on thermal insulation and heat-supply by means of direct utilization of geothermal energy amount to 25%, and patent applications on heat exchanger amount to 12%. These three kinds of patent applications on direct or indirect utilization of geothermal energy for heat-exchange accounted for 83%.

Fig.18 shows the analysis of foreign patent applications on geothermal energy utilization (including foreign PCT applications). It indicates that patent applications on heat-exchange by means of direct or indirect utilization of geothermal energy amount to 60%. Electricity generation by utilizing geothermal energy amounts to 22%.

In conclusion, domestic and foreign utilization of geothermal energy mainly relates to heat exchange by means of direct or indirect utilization of geothermal energy, such as air conditioning, heating, etc. Among them, geothermal heat pump is the most popular one for indirect geothermal energy heat exchange. Fig. 18 reveals that utilization of geothermal energy has already proceeded into more sophisticated stage, such as electricity generation, in foreign countries while it is still an emerging sector in China.

The history of geothermal heat pump utilization can be traced back into a Swiss patent in 1912. However, its commercial application only began over twenty years ago. At present, geothermal heat pump technology is widely adopted in many industrialized countries, such as USA, Japan, Germany, France and Sweden. Geothermal heat pumps can save more than 50% energy than fuel boilers, and their operating cost is only about 50% of traditional central air conditioners. It is expected that geothermal heat pump will become one of the most effective air conditioning technologies in 21st Century. Chinese government has also formulated plans to promote the importation and development of geothermal heat pump technology and to accelerate its localization. It may be predicted that Chinese market for geothermal heat pump has a promising expectation.

5.3 Analysis on Patent Applications Relating to Wind Energy Utilization

The patent applications relating to wind Fig.19 Number of Patent Applications Relating energy utilization are mainly for wind motor. to Wind Energy Utilization Wind motor refers to a mechanism for converting the energy of natural wind into useful mechanical power and transmitting such power to its point of use.

In recent years, with the government's enhanced stress on environment protection, it had become an urgent need to seek for a clean and reusable energy resource. The wind energy enjoys the merits of inexhaustibility and environmental-friendliness, therefore, the number of the patent applications relating to wind energy utilization had been increasing sharply year by year. By the end of 2006, the accumulated total of the published patent applications relating to wind energy utilization had reached 1,548. Fig.19 shows the trend of published patent applications relating to wind energy utilization from 2002 to 2006. The annual applications from 2002 to 2006 was 140, 179, 250, 295, 112, respectively (The data is based on the amount of published patent applications by the end of 2006. Most of the applications filed in 2006 were not published by that time. Therefore, the actual total in 2006 was over 112). The data indicates that the total volume of patent applications in the last five years was 1.71 times of that from 1985 to 2001.

Fig.20 shows the application distribution of the top six countries by applicant's nations in the field of wind energy utilization. Among them Chinese domestic patent applications were 1,229, accounting for 79.39% of the total, and most of them were individual applications. Foreign patent applications were 319, Caccounting for 20.61%. The number of patent applications filed by applicants from Germany, U.S.A, Denmark, Japan and South Korea is 94 or 6.07%, 62 or 4.1%, 48 or 3.1%, 34 or 2.2% and 11 or 0.71% of the total respectively. According to applicant, foreign patent applications were mainly filed by some major companies from Germany, U.S.A, Denmark and Japan, such as GENERAL ELECTRIC CO, VESTAS WIND SYSTEM AS, WOBBEN A and LM GLASFIBER AS. Although domestic patent applications are in an absolute advantage over foreign applications by number, most of the them were filed by individuals and thus applications in core technologies are scarce. On the contrary, foreign applications were mainly filed by big companies with comparatively higher quality and resulted in a favorable position and better competitiveness.

The patent applications relating to wind energy utilization may be divided into four categories by technology including wind motor assembly, control of wind motor, wind motor for special use and component parts or accessories.

Patent applications relating to the wind motor assembly is relatively high according to technology distribution. However, its technology is fairly mature with less improvement margin, and it may be expected that the number of the patent application relating to wind motor assembly will reduce comparatively in the near future. The wind motor for special use and component parts or accessories may attract more attention. This is reflected by patent applications in recent years. For example, the total volume of patent applications relating to wind motor for special use from 1985 to 2006 is 622, among which 499 were filed from 2002 to 2006, accounting for 80.23% of the total. Similarly, the total of the patent applications relating to component parts or accessories from 1985 to 2006 is 513, among which 460 were filed from 2002 to 2006, accounting for 89.67% of the total. Therefore, patent applications relating to wind motor for special use and component parts or accessories will remain a hotspot. In addition, with computer technology being widely adopted and control technology being broadly applied, control technology has become a future tendency for the purpose of improving the efficiency, safety, reliability and stability of the wind motor. It may be predicted that patent applications relating to the control of wind motor also will increase rapidly in the next few years.

2013-07-17