You can bet the house on Australia being big in inventions for gambling. Aristocrat Technologies (“the world’s greatest gaming experience every day”) topped patent applications last year with 157, way ahead of CSIRO – 45 and the University of Queensland with 18. Bluescope Steel and Monash U both lodged 15, according to the annual report from IP Australia.

While overall patent apps grew 2 per cent, this was due to the 26 400 international filings under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The number by Australians declined by 5 per cent between 2016 and 2017, to 2503.

A new analysis of data found 22 per cent of research organisations’ “patent families” are filed by “spin-out entities”. The leaders are University of Queensland, University of Sydney and CSIRO. Controlled entities generate the greatest proportion of IP activity at Griffith University, the Telethon Kids Institute and the Burnett Institute.