Australian IP report 2025
Lead applicants
Figure 2.5 lists Australia’s leading resident and non-resident applicants for standard patent applications. Patent filing activity in Australia is dominated by major global information and communications technology producers. In 2024, entry into the list of lead filers by several US biotechnology companies drove the growth in biotechnology patenting in Australia.
International applicants
Top international filers include South Korean multinational, LG Electronics, and Chinese smartphone company, Huawei Technologies. A new entrant into the list, at third place, was Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which filed 162 standard patent applications in 2024. The company is known for its experimental monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19 patients.
A second US biotechnology company, Amgen Inc., has entered the list of lead international filers at 7th place, with 113 applications. In December 2023, Amgen announced plans to use artificial intelligence to help discover and manufacture medicines. Among the company’s new Australian filings are patents for the use of predictive modelling to control biopharmaceutical processes1 and more efficiently use resources in drug production.2
Figure 2.5 Top domestic and international applicants for standard patents in Australia, 2024
Domestic applicants
Australia’s lead domestic applicants operate across a broad range of technology fields. These include games and furniture, computer technology, biotechnology and materials metallurgy.
Gaming technology producer Aristocrat Technologies has retained its position as the lead domestic patent filer with 73 applications in 2024. However, public research organisations dominate, with CSIRO, NewSouth Innovations (the technology transfer office for The University of New South Wales) and Monash University among the top 5 domestic filers.
Australian design software company Canva has risen to second place, with 44 applications. Canva was founded in Perth in 2013. Within a decade the company’s valuation peaked at $54.5 billion in 2021, making it one of the world’s most valuable start-ups.3 With a current focus on launching AI-based products, many of the company’s new patent filings relate to systems and methods for training AI models and automatically generating and processing images.
The above rankings are based on the number of standard patent applications filed by applicants (including original and divisional applications). Applicants vary in the rate at which they convert patent applications into grants and the timing with which they progress applications. Applicant residency is based on how applicants first represent their origin in their applications to IP Australia.
- Australian patent number 2023228806, Hybrid predictive modelling for control of cell culture. Patent search - IP Australia
- Australian patent number 2023249045, Systems and methods for reducing excess resource usage. Patent search - IP Australia
- Nugent, A. (2023). Running out of ideas or getting better at picking winners: what does the decline in provisional patent applications mean? IP Australia Working Paper.