(Yicai Global) June 17 -- One-fifth of the world's top 500 patent applicants for inventions in the field of artificial intelligence come from China, according to a copyright agency under the United Nations.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked first among Chinese applicants and 17th globally between 2013 and 2016 in the study that involved the world's top 500 most active applicants, a report from the World Intellectual Property Organization shows. Most of the Chinese participants are universities and public research bodies.

The number of AI patent applications has increased over the past five years as research is increasingly done with a view to commercializing innovations.

IBM has the largest AI patent portfolio with 8,290, followed by Microsoft with 5,930. Toshiba ranks third, Samsung Group fourth, and Japan's NEC fifth. Twelve of the top 20 come from Japan, three from the US and two from China. Among the top 30, nearly 90 percent of the patent-seekers are companies. 

The number of applications filed by Chinese universities and public research organizations grew 20 to 80 percent a year between 2013 and 2016. Their US counterparts' patenting activity fell between 20 and 26 percent in the same period. 

Editor: Emmi Laine