EPO reports record patent filings in 2012
The European Patent Office (EPO) received a record 258,000 patent applications in 2012, according to preliminary data released on Thursday.
Sixty-two percent of applications received were from non-European countries, with 24.7 percent originating from the US, followed by 19.9 percent from Japan, 7.3 percent from China and 5.5 percent from Korea.
Germany was the top filing EPO member state, submitting 13.4 percent of applications, followed by France, Switzerland, the UK and the Netherlands.
More than half of the 5.7 percent rise in filings from 2011 was due to an increase in applications from Japan, China and Korea, and the number of patents granted rose by 5.8 percent from 2011 to 65,700.
2012 is the third consecutive year that the EPO has reported a record number of patent applications, following a 6.9 percent drop between 2008 and 2009 as a result of the recession.
Of the top 50 filing countries, the biggest drop in patent applications came from Slovakia, which submitted just 64 applications, 24.3 percent fewer than last year. The number of filings from Saudi Arabia increased by 45.4 percent to 326, and applications submitted by Poland rose to 532, a 32.9 percent increase on 2011. The growth in UK filings was 4.4 percent.
Commenting on the data, EPO president Benoît Battistelli said it showed that Europe remains an attractive market for new technologies. “This growth is part of a consistent, long-term trend and is clear evidence of the confidence of the industry in the value of European patents.”
David Knight, partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP in London, said the rise in filings highlights the importance of protecting intellectual property in economically difficult times.
“In the last 12 to 18 months, patent attorneys have generally been reporting a substantial increase in business,” he said.
“When the economic crisis started, many companies cut back on research and development or patent filing to save money, but this was out of caution and was comparatively short lived – things have picked up substantially since then,” he said.
“What it does underline is that in tough economic times, maintaining a competitive edge and protecting one’s innovation is ever more important, and a key way of protecting that is through patents,” he added.
A more detailed analysis of patent filings at the EPO will be published on 14 March.
