Regional breakdown
Asia accounts for most of the research activity related to the four technology trends. Between 2000 and 2023, there were 34,703 patent family publications from inventors based in Asia (Figure B8). Europe (6,756 patent family publications) and North America (5,454) are other key research regions. The number of patent family publications from the other regions (Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and Oceania) remains rather low.
Top inventor locations
At a country level, China and the Republic of Korea lead global research activity in sea transportation technologies. Between 2000 and 2023, inventors from China published more than 17,000 patent families in these technologies, while inventors from the Republic of Korea were responsible for almost 11,720 patent family publications (Figure B9). As a result, these two countries have published more than half of all global patent families.
With a total of around 5,170 patent family publications between 2000 and 2023, the United States is the third most important research location, followed by Japan in fourth place, with 4,220 patent family publications. Germany is the leading European research location (5th globally), with more than 1,760 patent families published in the same period.
France, the United Kingdom UK) and the Russian Federation have all published more than 1,000 patent families since 2000. Norway and Australia follow in ninth and 10th place in the global ranking, respectively, with around 500 patent family publications each.
Among the rest of the top 20 inventor locations, there are several European countries (Italy, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Denmark and Switzerland), as well as Canada, Brazil and Israel. These top 20 inventor locations account for the majority of patenting activity related to sea transportation technologies.
Development and patent growth since 2000
Figure B10 illustrates the impressive rise of China as a research location in shipping. In 2000, China published only five patents in shipping technologies and was, therefore, not among the top 10 research countries. By 2010, this number had risen to 149, placing it fourth in the global ranking. In 2017, China overtook the Republic of Korea and climbed to the top of the global ranking. Overall, annual patent publications rose from 5 to 3,092 between 2000 and 2023 (17,268 in total).
Research activities from the Republic of Korea have also developed very dynamically, with patent publications rising from 27 in 2000 to 790 in 2023. Patent family publications from the United States, Japan and Germany have also increased between 2000 and 2023, albeit at a much slower pace and with many fluctuations along the way. Among the remaining top 10 research countries, France shows a dynamic development, with patent family publications increasing from 24 in 2000 to 96 in 2023. In contrast, the Russian Federation is the only top research country whose number of patent family publications has decreased since 2000.
In terms of growth rate of patent family publications, the Asian countries China and the Republic of Korea are clearly ahead, with very dynamic growth rates between 2000 and 2019 and also positive growth rates after 2020 (Figure B11).
The most dynamic European country is Denmark, with a high compound annual growth rate both between 2000 and 2019 and between 2020 and 2023.
Some countries – Finland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation – had a positive patent growth rate between 2000 and 2019, but declining patent family publications from 2020 onward. Conversely, Sweden’s patenting activity has accelerated significantly in recent years.
Research priorities: countries
For almost all top research locations, Sustainable Propulsion/Efficient Ship Design is the main research area, followed by Communication and Security technologies (Figure B12 and Table B1). The sole exception is Israel, where patenting activity in Communication and Security technologies outweighs activity in the field of Sustainable Propulsion/Efficient Ship Design.
Top inventor locations per technology trend
The country rankings for the four transport technology trends show China and the Republic of Korea are at a similar level of patenting activity in Sustainable Propulsion/Efficient Ship Design, but China is the clear leader in both Communication and Security and Automation and Circularity technologies (Figure B13). In HMI technologies, there is a three-way race between China, the United States and the Republic of Korea.
Relative Specialization Index (RSI)
The Relative Specialization Index (RSI) for sea transport technologies illustrates the extraordinarily important role played by the maritime industry in Norway (Figure B14). The country reaches a very high RSI index of 0.9 over all observed time periods. Shipping technology research is also very important in Denmark, France, the Republic of Korea and Finland.
At the opposite end of the country ranking of the top 20 nations in sea transport research are Japan and Brazil, where a negative RSI score indicates a low level of specialization.
