Patent Filings at the European Patent Office Reach All-Time High
06-Mar-2014
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Special to ag-IP-news Agency
BRUSSELS - Patent filings at the European Patent Office (EPO) grew by 2.8% last year and hit another all-time high, showing that Europe continues to be a key market for innovation. In 2013 the EPO received 266 000 patent filings, compared to 258 000 in 2012. The EPO granted 66 700 European patents, which was 1.6% more than in 2012 (65 600) and the highest number ever. Fig1.: Growth of patent filings
“Demand for patent protection in Europe is up for the fourth consecutive year," said EPO President Benoît Battistelli. "This is proof that companies from around the world continue to see Europe more and more as a premier hub for innovation. The strong position of European companies in patent-intense technologies also underlines the central role these industry sectors play in generating employment and growth in the EU economy."
Filings by country and region
With 35% of all filings at the EPO, the 38 EPO member states maintained their share of total filings in 2013. Once again nearly two-thirds of patent filings at the EPO last year came from outside Europe. The most active countries were the US (24% of the total), Japan (20%), Germany (12%), China (8%), South Korea (6%), France (5%), Switzerland and the Netherlands (both 3%), and the UK and Sweden (both 2%) Fig.2: Origin of filings
Europe: most applications per million inhabitants
The technological strength of the leading European countries is also reflected in the figures for European applications per million inhabitants: With 832 applications Switzerland tops the list, ahead of Sweden (402), Finland (360), Denmark and the Netherlands (both 347). A comparison by economic region sees Japan with 177 applications clearly ahead of South Korea and the EU-28 average (both 129), the US (107) and China (3). Fig. 3: Applications per mio. inhabitants
Europe stable, with regional differences
European industry maintained its patenting activities at the same level as in the previous year, with marked regional differences, however. Especially the Netherlands (+17.2%), Denmark (+8.1%), Sweden (+7.5%) but also member states with lower filing levels, such as Portugal (+34.5%), Turkey (+31.9%), the Czech Republic (+26.5%) and Ireland (+9.4%), showed marked upward trends over 2012, while filings from France (+1.1%), Finland (+0.6%) and Austria (+0.2%) grew moderately. Other countries saw a drop in patent filings, in particular Belgium (-7.4%), Germany (-5.4%), the UK (-3%), Italy (-2.7%), Switzerland (-2%) and Spain (-1%). Fig.4: Top 50 filing countries
US with stable increase, Asian countries drivers of growth
Filings from the US (+2.8%) and Japan (+1.2%) increased again from high levels. However, China (+16.2%) and South Korea (+14%) were once more the strongest contributors to growth: In total, filings from Asia accounted for nearly three-quarters of the increase at the EPO in 2013. This was particularly due to the dominance of Asian firms in the Computers, Electronics and Digital communications sectors.
Five European companies in top ten, Samsung in the lead
This is also reflected in the company ranking, where Samsung was again the top applicant (2 833 applications). With five companies in the top ten, however, European firms stood their ground in their home market, led by Siemens (2nd), Philips (3rd), BASF (5th), Robert Bosch (6th) and Ericsson (10th). Fig.5: Top 10 applicants at the EPO
An analysis of a representative sample of services requested from the EPO in 2013 shows that the EPO is also an important service provider for smaller entities: While 65.5% of the applicants were large companies, 29% were SMEs and individual inventors, and 5.5% universities and public research institutes. Fig.6: Categories of applicants
Europe dominant in automotive sector, environmental technologies and medical technology
In nine of the ten top technical fields, Europeans filed the greatest numbers of applications with the EPO. This underlines Europe’s balanced and wide-ranging patent portfolio. European companies took over the top spot from US applicants in the field of Medical technology (European firms 41%, US 39%), which was again the field with the most applications in 2013. Europeans were also particularly strong in the fields of Transport (especially the automotive and aeronautic sectors) with 60% of the total applications, Engines, pumps and turbines (including clean energy technologies), with 56% of the total, and Measurement, with 54%. Fig 7: Technical fields with most applications
Computers was the only technology not dominated by Europe (with US holding the sway at 34%, EPC 31%). Japan was strong in Electrical machinery (25%) and Transport (22%); China led in Digital communication (15%). Fig. 8: Regions of origin of technologies
In terms of growth, filings were up in Computer technology (+5%), Transport (+5%) and Electrical machinery (+4%), while Pharmaceuticals (-14%), Engines, pumps, turbines (-8%), Organic fine chemistry (-7%), Digital communication (-7%), and Biotechnology (-4%) decreased.
With almost 7 000 employees, the EPO is one of the largest European public service institutions. Its headquarters are in Munich and it also has offices in Berlin, Brussels, The Hague and Vienna. The EPO was founded with the aim of strengthening co-operation between the European states in the field of patents. Through the EPO's centralized patent granting procedure, inventors are able to obtain patent protection in the 38 member states of the European Patent Organization on the basis of a single European patent application.