- RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has topped the list of Arab countries in terms of patents registered last year, capturing 147 patents in 2011 followed by the United Arab Emirates.
According to the annual report issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the following table shows distribution of patents in Arab states: At the world level, China topped the list of countries recording an increase of 33 percent followed by Japan (21 percent), Canada (8.3 percent), South Korea (8 percent) and the United States (8 percent).
In the European countries, Switzerland registered an increase of 7.3 percent in its patents followed by France (5.8 percent), Germany (5.7 percent), Sweden (4.6 percent), Finland (2.7 percent), Spain (2.7 percent) and the UK (1 percent).