Surge in 5G and AI patents marks digital tech tipping point: EPO
The European Patent Office (EPO) received a record 181,000 patent applications last year, with digital technologies taking the lead in filings for the first time in more than a decade.
According to the “ EPO Patent Index 2019”, published today, March 12, the soar in digital technology patent filings was driven by 5G and artificial intelligence (AI).
Patent applications in digital communication, which includes technologies that are crucial to implementing 5G wireless networks, grew by 19.6% in 2019, to 14,175 filings, overtaking medical technology (an increase of 0.9% to 13,833 filings), which had been the most patent-active technology since 2006.
Meanwhile, the second-fastest-growing field at the EPO—computer technology—increased by 10.2% to 12,774 applications. The growth was propelled by an increase in applications related to AI, particularly in the areas of machine learning and pattern recognition, image data processing and generation, and data retrieval.
EPO president António Campinos added that the rapid rise of digital technologies is the most striking trend from the 2019 index.
“The digital transformation of the economy is now fully reflected in the patent applications reaching the EPO,” said Campinos. “It is important that companies and researchers in Europe seeking to protect their inventions find a level playing field with their competitors from Asia and the US, and are able to maintain a strong position in the global technology market.”
A surge in China
The 4% increase in all patent applications at the EPO in 2019 was mainly fuelled by a strong increase in filing volumes from China (an increase of 29.2% over 2018), the US (5.5%) and South Korea (14.1%).
Over the past decade, patent filings from China have increased nearly sixfold, with 12,247 applications in 2019, compared to 2,061 filings in 2019.
Chinese companies contributed most to the growth in digital communication patent applications,with an increase of 64.6%, with US (15%) and South Korean firms (36.1%) following suit.
Patent applications from the 38 EPO countries only grew modestly (1.1%) in 2019. In relative terms, this means that the share of patent applications from Europe continued to slide, falling from 51% in 2009 to 45% in 2019, as more players from outside Europe seek to protect their inventions.
Looking to the member states, Germany remained Europe’s top filing country, with a stable 0.5% increase, after two consecutive years of growth. France (-2.9%) and the Netherlands (-2.6%) saw decreases last year, while patent filings from the UK (6.9%) and Switzerland (3.6%) continued to increase significantly.
Sweden (8%) was the “growth champion”, boosted by increases in applications related to digital communication and computer technology, said the report.
Huawei retakes top spot
Chinese telecoms company Huawei knocked German conglomerate Siemens off the top spot for patent filings in 2019, with 3,524 applications. Last year, the EPO reported that Siemens had filed 2,493 patents in the jurisdiction in 2018, eight more than Huawei.
In 2019, Samsung moved up to second place and LG took third. The two South Korean firms were followed by US company United Technologies and Siemens in fifth place.
The top ten includes four companies from Europe, two from South Korea, two from the US, and one from each of China and Japan.
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