Patents in water related technologies (except wastewater)

Short description

Number of patent applications filed to the European patent office (EPO) for inventions within water related technologies (except wastewater).

Be aware that due to delayed data entries in the original database the values for the last couple of years might be underestimated and could possibly increase over the next years. Have this in mind when working with data from recent years.

Meta data

Unit:

patent applications

Original data

Data:

water_patents.csv

Unit for original data:

number of patent applications

Date of extraction:

Friday, May 25, 2018

Data source link:

OECD patent database

Rationale

This indicator monitors innovation outcomes in the form of patents filed for inventions. The information contained patents can help indicate the innovative performance in European Research Area (ERA) countries. Patents can help protect inventions and aid businesses development to bridge the gap between ideas and actual implementation of innovative technologies.

Limitations

Only patents filed to the EPO are listed in the data. This contains inventions sought protected within the jurisdiction of the EPO and also captures international patents filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which must also be filed to the EPO. The method does, however, not list patents which are filed to either the United States Patents and Trademark Office (USPTO) or the Japan Patent Office (JPO) alone. Hence, inventions which are sought protected in the ERA countries and all the PCT member states are covered, but not inventions which are sought protected under the jurisdiction of either the USPTO or JPO alone.
The patents are also listed according to the country of the inventor(s), though an invention may have been developed in a different country.
Many patents are never used in any industrial application, and do therefore not contribute to innovation directly. Many inventions are also not sought patented, either because they cannot be patented or because the inventors attempt to protect the invention through other means. These inventions are not captured through patent statistics, which are then not a perfect indicator for innovation.

Details on Methodology

The OECD have created a search strategy for environment-related technologies (ENV-TECH) based on more than 200,000 different classification symbols, containing both International Patent Classification (IPC) symbols and Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) symbols. The classifications cover a broad spectrum of technologies related to environmental pollution, water scarcity and climate change mitigation. The classifications found in the ENV-TECH search strategy have been grouped according to their relevance within the RECREATE innovation systems. Not all the classifications found in the ENV-TECH search strategy have been used. For each innovation system, a list of the relevant CPC and IPC schemes is created. The raw patent data found in the OECD REGPAT database (which contains all patent filed to the EPO) is then filtered for each list. This yields the number of patent applications relevant within each innovation system. These are allocated fractionally to the inventor(s) country according to inventor share. The patents are then sorted according to the priority year of filing.

List of IPC and CPC codes used in patent applications in water related technologies:

Faucets and showers
"Self-closing valves, i.e. closing automatically after operation, in which the closing movement, either retarded or not, starts immediately
after opening" F16K21/06-12
Self-closing valves, i.e. closing automatically after operation, closing after a predetermined quantity of fluid has been delivered F16K 21/16-20
Aeration of water
Arrangement or mounting of devices, e.g. valves, for venting or aerating or draining F16L 55/07
Jet regulators with aerating means E03C 1/084
Sanitation (dual-flush toilets, dry toilets, closed-circuit toilets)
Flushing devices discharging variable quantities of water E03D 3/12
Cisterns discharging variable quantities of water E03D 1/14
Urinals without flushing A47K 11/12
Dry closets A47K 11/02
Waterless or low-flush urinals E03D13/007
Special constructions of flushing devices with recirculation of bowl-cleaning fluid E03D5/016
Greywater
Greywater supply systems E03B1/041
Home appliances
Optimisation of water quantity (for dishwashers) Y02B 40/46
Optimisation of water quantity (for washing machines) Y02B 40/56
Irrigation water conservation
Drip irrigation
"Watering arrangements located above the soil which make use of perforated pipe-lines or pipe-lines with dispensing fittings, e.g. for
drip irrigation" A01G 25/02
Watering arrangements making use of perforated pipe-lines located in the soil A01G 25/06
Control of watering
Control of watering A01G 25/16
Water conservation in thermoelectric power production
Combustion heat from one cycle heating the fluid in another cycle F01K 23/08-10
"Non-positive-displacement machines or engines, e.g. steam turbines / Preventing or minimizing internal leakage of working fluid, e.g.
between stages" F01D 11
Water distribution
Piping – reducing leakage and leakage monitoring
Pipe-line systems / Protection or supervision of installations / Preventing, monitoring, or locating loss F17D5/02 and E03
Devices for covering leaks in pipes or hoses, e.g. hose-menders F16L55/16 and E03
Investigating fluid tightness of structures, by detecting the presence of fluid at the leakage point "G01M 3/08 or
G01M 3/14 or
G01M 3/18 or
G01M 3/22 or
G01M 3/28 and E03"
2.2. SUPPLY-SIDE TECHNOLOGIES (water availability)
2.2.1. Water collection (rain, surface and ground-water)
Underground water collection
Use of pumping plants or installations E03B 5
Methods or installations for obtaining or collecting drinking water or tap water from underground E03B 3/06-26
Surface water collection
Methods or installations for drawing-off water E03B 9
Methods or installations for obtaining or collecting drinking water or tap water from surface water E03B 3/04; 28-38
Rainwater water collection
Methods or installations for obtaining or collecting drinking water or tap water from rainwater E03B 3/02
Special vessels for collecting or storing rain-water for use in the household, e.g. water-butts E03B 3/03
Not elsewhere classified
Methods or installations for obtaining or collecting drinking water or tap water; rainwater, surface water, or groundwater "E03B 3/00
E03B 3/40"
Water storage
Arrangements or adaptations of tanks for water supply E03B 11

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The indicator is relevant to the following innovation systems on this website

Water and waste water

Water is an essential resource for human livelihoods and the economy.