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 | 6 | 2 | |||||||||||||
| Botswana | 1 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | |||||
| Congo, Dem. Rep. | 44 | 42 | 72 | ||||||||||||
| Lesotho | 4 | 1 | |||||||||||||
| Madagascar | 7 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 6 | ||
| Malawi | 3 | 6 | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Mauritius | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 4 | 6 | 6 | |||
| Mozambique | 15 | 8 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 24 | 15 | 24 | 34 | 23 | 26 | 30 | |||
| Namibia | 5 | 13 | 18 | 10 | 21 | 8 | |||||||||
| Seychelles | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| South Africa | 1,093 | 895 | 1,003 | 821 | 656 | 608 | 638 | 802 | 889 | 704 | 728 | 657 | 567 | 542 | 1,804 |
| Tanzania | 1 | ||||||||||||||
| Zambia | 7 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 14 | 20 | 15 | 12 | 11 | 2 | 17 | 13 | |
| Zimbabwe | 44 | 9 | 8 |