Report: Asian innovators taking global lead

Ant Group, the parent company of Alipay, made this year's list for the first time.

Ant Group had applied for about 30,000 patent applications as of the end of 2021, around half in the domestic market and half overseas, said Benjamin Bai, vice-president and chief IP counsel of Ant Group.

"For the company, patent filing strategy is driven by businesses and requires a forward-looking vision," Bai said.

"The best way is to use a portfolio of patents to help businesses gain competitive advantages in the market and it is the most prominent value of IP," he explained.

He said Ant Group has a global view towards patent filings, and therefore the number of its overseas patents is a bit more than the domestic.

"Our patent filings are guided by our global vision, and that is our difference from others."

In 2016, Ant Group had about 90 patent applications for its blockchain technology globally and it has expanded its technological innovation in the fields of blockchain, artificial intelligence, security, internet of things and computing, according to Bai.

According to the report, Asia's dominance in innovation is further underlined in the electronics and computing sectors, the largest industry sectors in this year's top 100 list, with 26 out of 28 of the top 100 companies coming from the region. The accelerating technological development efforts within the mobility sector saw the number of automotive firms included this year rise to 12, making the sector the second largest contributor to the list.

The global innovation ecosystem features connectivity and relies more on fields with a high degree of automation and production, which are based on shared data. The technological convergence brings more cooperation opportunities and requirements, the report said.