Investigation on Patent Application in China in Three-Dimensional Medical Imaging Technology

Abstract

Three-dimensional medical imaging technology is a high-tech and hot research area. Patent application is one of important indicators for the output of industrial technology innovation. This paper reviewed data of patent application in three-dimensional medical imaging technique from 1968 to 2011, especially data of patent applications in China. This study analyzed development trend of patent application amount, applicant distribution and patent distribution by IPCs, and assessed innovation feature and problems in China on three-dimensional medical imaging technique. It was showed that worldwide patent applications kept increasing and grew rapidly in recent fifteen years. China is in a similar trend. According to the amount of patent applications in China, top 5 applicants’ countries orderly are China, USA, Japan, Germany and Netherland. IPCs of worldwide patent applications focused on medical diagnosis (A61B). IPCs distribution of patent applications from Chinese applicants focused on image processing. Chinese applicants are more from researcher institutes. Creative ability of China in this area is increasing.KeywordsPatent applicationThree-Dimensional medical imagingpatent statisticspatent analysis