EPO published Patent Index for 2022, continued growth of applications

Mostar, March 29, 2023 – In 2022, 193 460 European patent applications were filed, which represents an increase of 2.5% compared to 2021, the European Patent Office (EPO) announced in the statistical report Patent Index 2022.

The aforementioned increase in applications is a sort of new record and a preliminary indicator of companies' investment in research and development despite global economic uncertainty, the EPO announced.

Five countries from which the largest number of European patent applications were received are the USA (as much as 25% of the total number of submitted applications), Germany, Japan, France and China, which doubled the number of applications in the last five years. The number of applications from the 39 EPO member states is unchanged and accounts for 44% of all patent applications. Seven applications were submitted from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as an EPO extension country (one application was submitted in 2021).

Huawei was the leading patent applicant at the EPO for the fourth time since 2017, followed by LG, Qualcomm, Samsung and Ericsson. In the top ten there are four companies from Europe, two from South Korea, two from the USA and one each from China and Japan. However, one in five patent applications from Europe was filed by an individual inventor or a small or medium-sized enterprise. The share of applications from European universities and public research organizations increased slightly to 7%, the EPO announced.

Digital communications (+11.2% compared to 2021) was once again the field with the highest number of patent applications last year, closely followed by medical technology (+1.0%) and computer technology (+1.8%). Electrical machinery/apparatus/energy (+18.2%), a field that includes clean energy-related inventions, was the fastest-growing among the top ten technology areas, driven in part by a boom in battery technologies (+48.0%), the EPO said.

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