What Can Patent Data Tell Us About the Australian Government’s Plan for Local Manufacturing?

The Australian Federal Government on 1 October 2020 announced a renewed focus and A$1.5 billion investment in manufacturing, in particular in the following six target areas of technology:

1. resources technology and critical minerals;

2. food and beverages;

3. medical products;

4. recycling and clean energy;

5. defence; and

6. space.

The arguments put forward by the Government include wanting to ‘focus on areas of strength’ and wanting to avoid the lesson of ‘don't try to do everything’. There are merits in these arguments, and there are also arguments for letting market forces rather than governments select our area of strengths.

So what are the areas of strengths for technology in Australia?

In the Patentealogy blog linked here, I explore this question by looking at the number of ‘highly cited’ and active patents filed by Australian companies - and conclude that the above list is missing an obvious area of strength, namely IT.