- International families
- 9752015 to 2024
- Leading country
- United States3.2× the next
- All families
- 2,900home filings included
- Over five years
- Falling2020 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
United States
France
Germany
United Kingdom
Japan
China
Canada
South Korea
Spain
Italy
428
135
90
56
54
53
39
20
17
11
| 2000 to 2025 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 428 | 43.9% | 0.7× | 811 | |
| 2 | France | 135 | 13.8% | 1.0× | 202 | |
| 3 | Germany | 90 | 9.2% | 1.2× | 115 | |
| 4 | United Kingdom | 56 | 5.7% | 1.2× | 67 | |
| 5 | Japan | 54 | 5.5% | 1.0× | 105 | |
| 6 | China | 53 | 5.4% | 1.5× | 1,181 | |
| 7 | Canada | 39 | 4.0% | 1.1× | 49 | |
| 8 | South Korea | 20 | 2.1% | 3.0× | 160 | |
| 9 | Spain | 17 | 1.7% | 0.7× | 18 | |
| 10 | Italy | 11 | 1.1% | 0.6× | 18 | |
| 11 | India | 11 | 1.1% | 1.8× | 11 | |
| 12 | Israel | 6 | 0.6% | 5.0× | 7 | |
| 13 | Belgium | 6 | 0.6% | 0.0× | 6 | |
| 14 | Russia | 6 | 0.6% | 0.0× | 80 | |
| 15 | Switzerland | 5 | 0.5% | 0.3× | 5 | |
| 16 | Türkiye | 4 | 0.4% | 3.0× | 4 | |
| 17 | Brazil | 4 | 0.4% | 0.0× | 6 | |
| 18 | Sweden | 3 | 0.3% | 0.5× | 5 | |
| 19 | Taiwan | 2 | 0.2% | – | 4 | |
| 20 | Austria | 2 | 0.2% | 0.0× | 2 | |
| 21 | Australia | 2 | 0.2% | 0.0× | 5 | |
| 22 | Singapore | 2 | 0.2% | – | 2 | |
| 23 | Ireland | 2 | 0.2% | – | 2 | |
| 24 | Poland | 2 | 0.2% | – | 4 | |
| 25 | New Zealand | 2 | 0.2% | – | 2 | |
| 26 | Hungary | 2 | 0.2% | 0.0× | 3 | |
| 27 | Netherlands | 1 | 0.1% | 0.0× | 2 | |
| 28 | Czechia | 1 | 0.1% | – | 1 | |
| 29 | Liechtenstein | 1 | 0.1% | – | 1 | |
| 30 | Norway | 0 | 0.0% | – | 4 | |
| 31 | Luxembourg | 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 Launch, Maintenance & Support. Names are as held in the source and are not consolidated across subsidiaries.
Global
975 international families
BOEING CO · United States
AIRBUS OPERATIONS GMBH · Germany
AIRBUS OPERATIONS SAS · France
GEN ELECTRIC · United States
AIRBUS OPERATIONS LTD · United Kingdom
THE BOEING CO · United States
174
45
44
32
24
24
United States
428 international families
BOEING CO
GEN ELECTRIC
THE BOEING CO
GOODRICH CORP
HAMILTON SUNDSTRAND CORP
HONEYWELL INT INC
174
31
24
13
13
12
France
135 international families
AIRBUS OPERATIONS SAS
SAFRAN AIRCRAFT ENGINES
ARIANEGROUP SAS
AIRBUS SAS
SAFRAN ELECTRONICS & DEFENSE
SAFRAN NACELLES
41
18
11
9
7
7
Germany
90 international families
AIRBUS OPERATIONS GMBH
LUFTHANSA TECHNIK AG
DEUTSCH ZENTR LUFT & RAUMFAHRT
ARIANEGROUP GMBH
AIRBUS DEFENCE & SPACE GMBH
LARCH SASCHA
36
8
7
6
3
3
United Kingdom
56 international families
AIRBUS OPERATIONS LTD
AIRBUS OPERATIONS GMBH
ROLLS ROYCE PLC
GE AVIAT SYSTEMS LTD
SAFRAN LANDING SYSTEMS UK LTD
SHORT BROTHERS PLC
23
6
6
3
3
3
Japan
54 international families
MITSUBISHI HEAVY IND LTD
SUBARU CORP
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP
MITSUBISHI AIRCRAFT CORP
JAPAN AEROSPACE EXPLORATION
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC RES LABORATORIES INC
14
7
5
3
2
2
Similar capabilities
The nine capabilities that share the most international patent families with Launch, Maintenance & Support, 2015 to 2024: the families counted in both as a share of those counted in either. Each card shows its five largest countries.
Strategic Infrastructure
Air Infrastructure
19.7% shared · 739 families in both
United States
Japan
Germany
China
France
1,188
473
303
274
259
National Security
Assured Space Access
14.7% shared · 261 families in both
United States
France
Germany
Japan
China
348
166
106
80
69
Critical Technology
Space Launch & Reusable Systems
13.9% shared · 262 families in both
United States
France
Germany
Japan
China
369
176
121
104
78
Strategic Infrastructure
R&D & Testing Facilities
6.9% shared · 256 families in both
United States
France
China
United Kingdom
Germany
1,103
402
262
254
246
Critical Technology
Advanced Propulsion & Hypersonic Systems
4.1% shared · 111 families in both
United States
France
Germany
Japan
China
732
229
172
130
104
Strategic Infrastructure
Manufacturing Facilities
4.1% shared · 123 families in both
United States
France
Germany
United Kingdom
Japan
892
274
266
193
97
Strategic Infrastructure
Satellites & Orbital Systems
2.3% shared · 241 families in both
United States
China
Japan
France
South Korea
3,071
2,252
925
693
509
National Security
Space Domain Awareness & Control
1.8% shared · 25 families in both
Japan
United States
France
Germany
China
145
123
41
26
21
Critical Technology
Satellite & Constellation Technologies
1.7% shared · 171 families in both
United States
China
Japan
France
South Korea
2,984
2,248
933
651
508
Crosswalk
How Launch, Maintenance & Support is matched to the patent classifications. The entries below were chosen for it; each stands for itself and everything beneath it in the scheme, 8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B64G5/00 | Ground equipment for vehicles, e.g. starting towers, fuelling arrangements | Launch-site ground equipment: towers and fuelling | 2 | 1 | 2,636 |
| B64G1/002 | Launch systems | Space launch systems | 4 | none | 4,523 |
| B64F5/40 | Maintaining or repairing aircraft | Aircraft maintenance and repair | 2 | 2 | 6,358 |
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 Launch, Maintenance & Support: 8 codes on 12,898 documents. The full crosswalk is in the cpc-to-capability.csv download.
| Code | Title | Under entry | How placed | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B64F5/40 | Maintaining or repairing aircraft | B64F5/40 | In the scheme | 6,203 |
| B64G1/002 | Launch systems | B64G1/002 | In the scheme | 2,866 |
| B64G5/00 | Ground equipment for vehicles, e.g. starting towers, fuelling arrangements | B64G5/00 | In the scheme | 1,877 |
| B64G1/005 | Air launch | B64G1/002 | In the scheme | 767 |
| B64G1/006 | Reusable launch rockets or boosters | B64G1/002 | In the scheme | 667 |
| B64G1/008 | Arrangement of launch rockets or boosters | B64G1/002 | In the scheme | 223 |
| B64F5/45 | Repairing leakages in fuel tanks | B64F5/40 | In the scheme | 155 |
| B64G2005/005 | Systems for launching spacecraft from a platform at sea | B64G5/00 | In the scheme | 140 |