The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters has announced that the Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) database registered its millionth patent in 2008. This figure is set to rise to 1.24 million by year end, an increase of 37 percent over 2007. This is the first time in the product's 45-year history that more than one million records have been published.
Created in 1963, the Thomson Reuters DWPI database captures the world's innovation through abstracting and indexing new inventions described in patent documents from 41 patent issuing authorities globally. It now contains over 17 million inventions covering 36.9 million individual patents, making it the world's premier patent information database.
DWPI coverage of China commenced in 1985 with re-written English language titles, abstracts and classifications. This was enhanced in October 2007 with the addition of more detailed abstracts, and further in January 2008 with structural indexing for polymer, pharmaceutical, agrochemical and general chemical inventions. Human translations of all claims across all technologies are available for the Chinese invention patents and utility models published from July 2008.
The millionth patent application is from ZTE Corporation, a Chinese company located in the Guangdong province in South China, and describes an improved cell phone user interface. The growth in Chinese inventions in the telecommunications technology area has been particularly significant in recent years. In 1995, Telephone and Data Transmission Systems technology was ranked outside the top five technology areas in China. By 2005, however, it had moved into second place.
