Patent indicators used throughout the report mainly rely on IP5 patent families that identify the most valuable patents protected on the largest markets, as discussed by Dernis et al. (2015[1]) and Amoroso et al. (2021[2]). The value of patents is often associated with the number of patent jurisdictions in which the invention is protected: patentees will only take on the additional costs and delays of extending protection to other countries if they deem it worthwhile in terms of economic returns (OECD, 2009[3]). IP5 patent families are defined as sets of patent applications protecting the same invention filed in at least two intellectual property (IP) offices, with at least one application filed in one of the five largest IP offices worldwide (IP5): the European Patent Office, the Japan Patent Office, the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (CNIPA) or the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

• semiconductor

• transistor

• integrated circuit

• silicon wafer

• logic chip

• memory chip.

[2] Amoroso, S. et al. (2021), World Corporate Top R&D Investors: Paving the Way for Climate Neutrality, Joint Research Centre, European Commission, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, https://doi.org/10.2760/49552.

[1] Dernis, H. et al. (2015), World Corporate Top R&D Investors: Innovation and IP Bundles, JRC Research Reports, https://ideas.repec.org/p/ipt/iptwpa/jrc94932.html.

[3] OECD (2009), OECD Patent Statistics Manual, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264056442-en.