Patent applications are worldwide patent applications filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty procedure or with a national patent office.
| 1990 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angola | 114 | 108 | |||||||||||||
| Botswana | 8 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | ||||||
| Congo, Dem. Rep. | 107 | 90 | 110 | ||||||||||||
| Madagascar | 48 | 35 | 34 | 58 | 40 | 47 | 29 | 16 | 30 | 42 | 37 | 30 | 21 | 22 | |
| Malawi | 33 | 17 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Mauritius | 3 | 19 | 14 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 36 | 18 | 13 | 23 | 19 | 14 | |||
| Mozambique | 8 | 14 | 25 | 15 | 26 | 30 | 46 | 30 | 25 | 26 | 13 | 24 | 14 | 16 | |
| Namibia | 158 | 11 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 12 | |||||||||
| Seychelles | 14 | 46 | 17 | 12 | 9 | 28 | |||||||||
| South Africa | 4,943 | 2,400 | 6,001 | 5,562 | 6,589 | 6,836 | 6,657 | 6,750 | 6,608 | 6,506 | 6,816 | 6,258 | 6,347 | 6,146 | 9,156 |
| Eswatini | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Tanzania | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | |||||||||
| Zambia | 50 | 22 | 12 | 21 | 31 | 26 | 25 | 12 | 18 | 10 | 13 | 21 | 10 | 13 | |
| Zimbabwe | 159 | 19 | 5 |