The Japan Patent Office releases an annual report on the situation of patent applications filed by universities every year.
According to the report, the number of patent applications filed by universities has been gradually increasing these several years. Further, the grant rate of patent applications filed by universities was about 80% in 2016, which is significantly higher than the average grant rate.
The graph below shows the numbers of patent applications and registered patents of major domestic (Japanese) universities. The University of Tokyo has the greatest number of both applications and registered patents, which has been the case for the past several years.
The Japan Patent Office also refers to the WIPO rankings of the numbers of published PCT applications filed by universities across the world. Six Japanese universities are listed in the Top 30 ranking, and the University of Tokyo is ranked number 7.
