The UK lost its position among the world’s top five centres of innovation last year for the first time in nearly 30 years, according to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

The UK was sixth, behind the US, Japan, Germany, South Korea and France, the United Nations intellectual property agency said.

British companies filed 5,045 applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). It is the first time since the PCT system began in 1978 that the UK has been out of the top five.

It found itself behind South Korea, which saw applications grow by 26.6 per cent.

The biggest growth in applications of any country came from China. Applications under its international patent system jumped 56.8 per cent in 2006, and it is predicted to overtake the UK this year.

“The industrial activity is shifting to the emerging economies like China and South Korea,” a WIPO official said. “Within a few years, China could become the fourth largest source of PCT applications.”

In 2006, a record 145,300 applications were filed under the PCT, which allows companies to file for patent protection in its 136 member countries with one application, removing the expense of filing in each country.

The top five applicants last year, unchanged from 2005, were: Philips Electronics, the Dutch group, with 2,495 filings; Matsushita of Japan; Siemens of Germany; Nokia of Finland and Bosch of Germany. There were no British companies in the top 50. The highest, Unilever, was at 65 with 183 filings, followed by GlaxoSmithKline at 86 and BT at 178.

A source close to the WIPO said that the UK figures could reflect its status as a leading financial centres rather than a decline of competitiveness.

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