As the foundation of an industrialized country nowadays,machine tools industry is regarded as the engine of industrial development of a country.The developed countries,such as USA,Germany and Japan,have widely deployed the technology of using the patent in order to keep their strength in various fields.This research examins the CNC machine tools industry in the world by using the patent analysis method.It first gives an overview about the world patent application in CNC machine tools industry from 1963 to 2010 and divides the development of the industry into five stages.It also lists the patent application of the world top 20 countries,where the top 5 countries are compared.The patents of the world top 10 companies of machine tools manufacturers are mapped according to the international patent classification(IPC),and the future trends of world machine tools industry are discussed.Finally conclusions and suggestions are presented. As the foundation of an industrialized country nowadays, machine tools industry is viewed as the engine of industrial development of a country. That developed countries, such as USA, Germany and Japan, have widely deployed the technology of using the patent in order to keep their strength in various fields. This research examins the CNC machine tools industry in the world by using the patent analysis method. First gives an overview about the world patent application in CNC machine tools industry from 1963 to 2010 and divides the development of the industry into five stages. I also also publish the patent application of the world top 20 countries, where the top 5 countries are compared. Patents the world top 10 companies of machine tools manufacturers are mapped according to the international patent classification (IPC), and the future trends of world machine tools industry are discussed .Finally conclusions and suggestions are presented.