- International families
- 1,2782015 to 2024
- Leading country
- Japan1.5× the next
- All families
- 11khome filings included
- Over five years
- Rising2020 to 2024 against the five before
Year by year
Patent families by country of origin and the year of the earliest filing, 2000 to 2025; 2025 is a part year, still filling in. International families are those for which protection was sought beyond one country.
Volume
International patent families in the capability, by the year of the earliest filing.
Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Underlying patents from 107 patent offices, IFI CLAIMS and Google
Share by country
Each country's share of the year's international families, in per cent: the capability's five largest countries of origin, 2015 to 2024, and the rest of the world.
Source: Global Institute for National Capability (GINC), 2026. Underlying patents from 107 patent offices, IFI CLAIMS and Google
Country leaderboard
International patent families, 2015 to 2024, by country of origin. Growth compares the latest five full years with the five before.
Ten largest
Japan
China
United States
South Korea
United Kingdom
Germany
France
Norway
Canada
Finland
324
216
161
124
46
44
44
35
30
23
| 2000 to 2025 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Japan | 324 | 25.4% | 1.6× | 594 | |
| 2 | China | 216 | 16.9% | 2.0× | 8,080 | |
| 3 | United States | 161 | 12.6% | 1.0× | 325 | |
| 4 | South Korea | 124 | 9.7% | 1.3× | 1,134 | |
| 5 | United Kingdom | 46 | 3.6% | 0.7× | 62 | |
| 6 | Germany | 44 | 3.4% | 0.6× | 92 | |
| 7 | France | 44 | 3.4% | 0.6× | 73 | |
| 8 | Norway | 35 | 2.7% | 1.9× | 39 | |
| 9 | Canada | 30 | 2.3% | 1.5× | 43 | |
| 10 | Finland | 23 | 1.8% | 0.4× | 28 | |
| 11 | Taiwan | 21 | 1.6% | 1.6× | 40 | |
| 12 | Switzerland | 21 | 1.6% | 9.5× | 27 | |
| 13 | Israel | 19 | 1.5% | 1.7× | 22 | |
| 14 | Netherlands | 17 | 1.3% | 0.5× | 29 | |
| 15 | Italy | 17 | 1.3% | 0.7× | 31 | |
| 16 | Australia | 15 | 1.2% | 0.7× | 27 | |
| 17 | Belgium | 15 | 1.2% | 1.1× | 24 | |
| 18 | Denmark | 14 | 1.1% | 1.8× | 14 | |
| 19 | Singapore | 14 | 1.1% | 3.7× | 15 | |
| 20 | Sweden | 13 | 1.0% | 1.6× | 14 | |
| 21 | Spain | 12 | 0.9% | 0.5× | 15 | |
| 22 | India | 7 | 0.5% | 1.3× | 8 | |
| 23 | Brazil | 5 | 0.4% | 0.7× | 14 | |
| 24 | Austria | 4 | 0.3% | 1.0× | 5 | |
| 25 | Poland | 3 | 0.2% | 0.5× | 19 | |
| 26 | Türkiye | 2 | 0.2% | – | 7 | |
| 27 | Ireland | 2 | 0.2% | – | 2 | |
| 28 | New Zealand | 2 | 0.2% | 1.0× | 3 | |
| 29 | Saudi Arabia | 2 | 0.2% | 1.0× | 2 | |
| 30 | Czechia | 2 | 0.2% | – | 4 | |
| 31 | Portugal | 2 | 0.2% | – | 2 | |
| 32 | Hong Kong | 1 | 0.1% | 0.0× | 2 | |
| 33 | Liechtenstein | 1 | 0.1% | 0.0× | 1 | |
| 34 | Malaysia | 1 | 0.1% | 0.0× | 2 | |
| 35 | Russia | 0 | 0.0% | – | 95 | |
| 36 | Hungary | 0 | 0.0% | – | 1 |
Applicants
The largest applicants by international patent families, 2015 to 2024: across the world, then within each of the five countries with the most families in Inland Waterways & Ferries. Names are as held in the source and are not consolidated across subsidiaries.
Global
1,278 international families
FURUNO ELECTRIC CO · Japan
YAMAHA MOTOR CO LTD · Japan
ABB SCHWEIZ AG · Switzerland
FUJITSU LTD · Japan
KOREA INST OCEAN SCI & TECH · South Korea
AVIKUS CO LTD · South Korea
122
31
19
19
18
15
Japan
324 international families
FURUNO ELECTRIC CO
YAMAHA MOTOR CO LTD
FUJITSU LTD
KAWASAKI HEAVY IND LTD
HONDA MOTOR CO LTD
OCEANIC CONSTELLATIONS INC
121
31
19
14
11
10
China
216 international families
CHINA HARBOUR ENG CO LTD
CHINA HARBOUR ENGINEERING CO LTD
TANGSHAN HARBIN SHIP TECH CO LTD
UNIV WUHAN TECH
UNIV ZHEJIANG
CCCC NATIONAL ENGINEERING RESEACH CENTER OF DREDGING TECH AND EQUIPMENT CO LTD
12
7
7
7
7
5
United States
161 international families
BRUNSWICK CORP
BARDEX CORP
BOEING CO
CASHMAN DREDGING AND MARINE CONTRACTING CO LLC
EDDY PUMP CORP
HARRIS CORP
11
4
4
4
4
3
South Korea
124 international families
KOREA INST OCEAN SCI & TECH
AVIKUS CO LTD
SEADRONIX CORP
HD KOREA SHIPBUILDING & OFFSHORE ENG CO LTD
KOREA INSTITUTE OCEAN SCIENCE & TECH
ELECTRONICS & TELECOMMUNICATIONS RES INST
18
15
7
6
6
5
United Kingdom
46 international families
BAE SYSTEMS PLC
HARWICH HAVEN AUTHORITY
ROLLS ROYCE PLC
ROTECH GROUP LTD
G M S GLOBAL MARITIME SERVICES LTD
CLARKSONS CLOUD LTD
4
4
4
4
3
2
Similar capabilities
The nine capabilities that share the most international patent families with Inland Waterways & Ferries, 2015 to 2024: the families counted in both as a share of those counted in either. Each card shows its five largest countries.
National Security
Maritime Security & Constabulary
34.7% shared · 459 families in both
Japan
United States
South Korea
China
France
206
55
42
40
21
Strategic Infrastructure
Dams, Reservoirs & Flood Defence
3.0% shared · 118 families in both
China
United States
Germany
Japan
South Korea
808
403
293
212
172
Strategic Infrastructure
Seaports & Terminals
2.2% shared · 108 families in both
China
Japan
United States
France
South Korea
482
422
420
416
286
Governance & Integrity
Recovery, Continuity & Adaptation
1.6% shared · 58 families in both
China
United States
Japan
South Korea
Italy
513
307
286
199
125
Strategic Infrastructure
Air Navigation & Traffic Management
1.0% shared · 88 families in both
United States
Japan
China
France
Germany
2,940
1,014
815
738
380
Strategic Infrastructure
Irrigation & Agricultural Water
0.9% shared · 33 families in both
United States
China
Japan
Germany
Israel
621
455
164
124
100
National Security
Sea Denial & Undersea Warfare
0.9% shared · 27 families in both
United States
Germany
China
France
Japan
308
277
266
139
138
Strategic Infrastructure
Storage, Transport & Export
0.7% shared · 56 families in both
United States
France
Japan
China
South Korea
1,149
1,029
876
701
523
Critical Technology
Resilient Positioning & Navigation
0.6% shared · 53 families in both
United States
Japan
China
Germany
France
1,948
1,411
1,349
836
427
Crosswalk
How Inland Waterways & Ferries is matched to the patent classifications. The entries below were chosen for it; each stands for itself and everything beneath it in the scheme, 34 Cooperative entries in all. A patent family counts when any of its codes, in either scheme and at any office, falls under one of them. Codes since retired are placed under the entries that replaced them.
| Entry | Title in the scheme | Why it is chosen | CPC codes | IPC codes | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E02C | Ship-lifting devices or mechanisms | Ship locks and ship lifts | 10 | 10 | 5,713 |
| E02B3/02 | Stream regulation, e.g. breaking up subaqueous rock, cleaning the beds of waterways, directing the water flow | River regulation and clearing of waterway beds | 3 | 1 | 7,636 |
| E02F5/28 | Dredgers or soil-shifting machines for special purposes for cleaning watercourses or other ways | Dredgers for cleaning watercourses | 4 | 1 | 19,385 |
| B63B35/28 | Barges or lighters | Barges and lighters | 8 | 2 | 4,926 |
| B63B35/54 | Ferries | Ferries | 1 | 1 | 771 |
| B63B51/00 | Marking of navigation route | Marking of navigation routes | 3 | 3 | 2,014 |
| B63B22/16 | Buoys specially adapted for marking a navigational route | Buoys marking navigation channels | 3 | 1 | 3,276 |
| G08G3/00 | Traffic control systems for marine craft | Traffic control systems for vessels | 2 | 2 | 10,881 |
CPC and IPC codes are the codes in use on patent documents, at any office, that fall under the entry. Documents is the larger of the two schemes' counts of documents carrying one of them. An entry with no IPC codes can be told apart only in the Cooperative scheme.
The Cooperative codes in use that count towards Inland Waterways & Ferries: 34 codes on 36,434 documents. The full crosswalk is in the cpc-to-capability.csv download.
| Code | Title | Under entry | How placed | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E02F5/28 | Dredgers or soil-shifting machines for special purposes for cleaning watercourses or other ways | E02F5/28 | In the scheme | 5,252 |
| G08G3/02 | Anti-collision systems | G08G3/00 | In the scheme | 4,958 |
| G08G3/00 | Traffic control systems for marine craft | G08G3/00 | In the scheme | 4,841 |
| E02B3/02 | Stream regulation, e.g. breaking up subaqueous rock, cleaning the beds of waterways, directing the water flow | E02B3/02 | In the scheme | 2,909 |
| B63B35/28 | Barges or lighters | B63B35/28 | In the scheme | 2,527 |
| E02F5/282 | Dredgers or soil-shifting machines for special purposes for cleaning watercourses or other ways with rotating cutting or digging tools | E02F5/28 | In the scheme | 2,237 |
| E02B3/023 | Removing sediments | E02B3/02 | In the scheme | 1,978 |
| E02F5/287 | Dredgers or soil-shifting machines for special purposes for cleaning watercourses or other ways with jet nozzles | E02F5/28 | In the scheme | 1,221 |
| B63B22/166 | Buoys specially adapted for marking a navigational route comprising a light | B63B22/16 | In the scheme | 1,065 |
| E02F5/285 | Dredgers or soil-shifting machines for special purposes for cleaning watercourses or other ways with drag buckets or scraper plates | E02F5/28 | In the scheme | 1,018 |
| E02C1/00 | Locks or dry-docks; Shaft locks, i.e. locks of which one front side is formed by a solid wall with an opening in the lower part through which the ships pass | E02C | In the scheme | 968 |
| B63B22/16 | Buoys specially adapted for marking a navigational route | B63B22/16 | In the scheme | 960 |
| E02C5/00 | Mechanisms for lifting ships vertically | E02C | In the scheme | 798 |
| B63B35/54 | Ferries | B63B35/54 | In the scheme | 718 |
| B63B35/285 | Flexible barges, e.g. bags | B63B35/28 | In the scheme | 684 |
| B63B51/00 | Marking of navigation route | B63B51/00 | In the scheme | 479 |
| B63B35/306 | Barges or lighters self-discharging discharging through dump-gates on the bottom or sides of the barge | B63B35/28 | In the scheme | 473 |
| B63B35/308 | Split barges interconnected hingedly or slidably | B63B35/28 | In the scheme | 401 |
| E02C1/06 | Devices for filling or emptying locks | E02C | In the scheme | 346 |
| E02C3/00 | Inclined-plane ship-lifting mechanisms ; Systems for conveying barges or lighters over land, e.g. by railway | E02C | In the scheme | 322 |
| E02C1/10 | Equipment for use in connection with the navigation of ships in locks; Mooring equipment | E02C | In the scheme | 314 |
| B63B51/02 | Marking of navigation route with anchored lightships; by use of lighthouses | B63B51/00 | In the scheme | 273 |
| B63B35/30 | Barges or lighters self-discharging | B63B35/28 | In the scheme | 263 |
| B63B35/305 | Barges or lighters self-discharging discharging by mechanical means | B63B35/28 | In the scheme | 231 |
| E02C5/02 | Mechanisms for lifting ships vertically with floating chambers | E02C | In the scheme | 191 |
| B63B35/301 | Barges or lighters self-discharging discharging by turning over part of or the whole barge | B63B35/28 | In the scheme | 182 |
| B63B51/04 | Marking of navigation route with free-floating flares | B63B51/00 | In the scheme | 173 |
| B63B35/303 | Barges or lighters self-discharging discharging by suction, pressing or washing | B63B35/28 | In the scheme | 165 |
| E02B3/026 | Removing solid rocks | E02B3/02 | In the scheme | 162 |
| B63B22/163 | Buoys specially adapted for marking a navigational route comprising a bell or other audible signal | B63B22/16 | In the scheme | 99 |
| E02C1/08 | Arrangements for dissipating the energy of the water | E02C | In the scheme | 96 |
| E02C1/02 | Locks or dry-docks; Shaft locks, i.e. locks of which one front side is formed by a solid wall with an opening in the lower part through which the ships pass with auxiliary basins | E02C | In the scheme | 70 |
| E02C1/04 | Locks or dry-docks; Shaft locks, i.e. locks of which one front side is formed by a solid wall with an opening in the lower part through which the ships pass with floating throughs throughs for inclined plane lifting apparatus | E02C | In the scheme | 59 |
| E02C1/33 | Retired code | E02C | Retired, by main group | 1 |