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Data from December 2013. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
Table 1: Patent applications to the EPO, total number, per million inhabitants and average annual growth rate (AAGR) (1) - Source: Eurostat (pat_ep_ntot)
Figure 1: Top 30 metropolitan areas in terms of total patent applications to the EPO and share of high-tech patent applications, 2010 (1) (Total number) - Source: Eurostat (pat_ep_rtot) and (pat_ep_rtec)
Table 2: Patent applications to the EPO, total number, 2010 - Source: Eurostat (pat_ep_nic), (pat_ep_nrns), (pat_ep_nnano), (pat_ep_nbio), (pat_ep_ntec) and (pat_ep_ntot)
Table 1: Distribution of energy technologies applications designated to the EPO at EU-28 level, 2010 - Source: Eurostat (pat_ep_nrg)

This article provides information on patent applications in the European Union (EU). Patents reflect part of a country’s inventive activity. Patents also show the country’s capacity to exploit knowledge and translate it into potential economic gains. In this context, indicators based on patent statistics are widely used to assess the inventive performance of countries or regions. The grounds for the assumption that a patent represents a codification of inventive activity rely on the novelty, utility and inventiveness that an invention requires to be subject to be patented. On the basis of this assumption, Eurostat collects patent statistics to build up indicators of research and development (R & D) output.

Main statistical findings

Among the EU Member States, Germany had by far the highest number of patent applications to the European Patent Office (EPO), some 22 257 in 2011 (41.2 % of the EU-28 total), followed by France (8 615), the United Kingdom (4 966) and Italy (3 865). In relative terms, Germany reported the highest number of patent applications per million inhabitants (272), followed by Sweden (260) and Finland (243). Between 2005 and 2011 the number of patent applications filed at the EPO fell in 15 of the EU Member States, the largest contractions being recorded in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

The downturn in the number of patent applications in these countries more than outweighed the increases recorded in the remaining 13 Member States, where the highest absolute gains in numbers of applications were recorded in Spain, France and Poland (see Table 1). At international level, the highest numbers of patent applications were recorded in the US (26 064), Japan (17 896) and in China (5 283).

At EU level, the number of patent applications to the EPO decreased by an average of 0.9  % per year between 2005 and 2011. Over the same period, patenting activity rose in a majority of EU Member States (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Spain, France, Latvia, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden).

Eurostat recently started to compile patent applications data by metropolitan regions, a geographical breakdown that may regroup information on various NUTS level 3 regions (see Figure 1).

Seen from this different angle, yet unsurprisingly many capital regions show up (Paris, London, Berlin, Stockholm, Brussels, Helsinki and Vienna) and in the Top 10, six urban areas in Germany are listed. In France, the traditionally high concentration of research centres in the metropolitan region of Paris is reflected through the 1333 patent applications that were registered. The two other French metropolitan areas, Grenoble and Lyon, respectively rank at 10th and 29th position. High-tech patent applications represented 49.2  % of the total patent applications in Malmö (Sweden). By contrast, Torino (Italy) reported only 3.6  % of high-tech patent applications. Furthermore, in fifteen countries the high-tech patent applications shares were between 20 and 50  %.

EU ICT patent applications to the EPO represented 12.8 % of all patent applications in 2010, followed by high-technology with 8.5 % (provisional data). Their relative importance declined in time, as did their absolute number – from 16 205 in 2000 to 7 007 in 2010 (provisional data) - of ICT patent applications., high-technology patent applications followed the same trend, from 11 952 in 2000 to 4 663 in 2010 (provisional data). This considerable and continued reduction in ICT and high-technology patent applications filed with the EPO may reflect the length of patent procedures.

A relatively small group of EU Member States had a far higher tendency to file ICT patent applications at the EPO. The highest numbers of patent applications were recorded in Germany, France, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Spain and Denmark (between 2 798 and 117 applications).

Biotechnology is a growing discipline with a remarkably strong market. This growth is also reflected in the number of biotechnology patents. For several years now, biotechnological inventions have consistently ranked among the ten largest technical fields in terms of patent applications filed with the European Patent Office (EPO). In 2010, at EU level, only 1.5  % of all patent applications (provisional data) were related to biotechnology inventions.

Among the emerging technologies, nanotechnology is one of the most prominent examples and it raises high expectations in a wide range of areas affecting daily life. Nanotechnology can be present in almost any area of science and engineering; it is just as relevant to biotechnologists and physicists as it is to electrical and mechanical engineers or materials scientists. Looking at the number of patent applications to the EPO in 2010, nanotechnology was a field of research still in its infancy and therefore small in terms of patenting. Nevertheless, the EU accounted for 44.7  % of all nanotechnology patent applications to the EPO, followed by the United States (21.2  %) and Japan (18.9  %).

Figure 2 offers an overview on the distribution of the absolute number of patent applications in energy technologies designating the EPO at EU-28 level in 2010. The strong predominance of patents related to wind energy and photovoltaic energy is particularly visible, reconfirming that the energy generation through renewable energy sources is by far the most important.

Data sources and availability

Since 2007, Eurostat’s production of European Patent Office (EPO) data has been based almost exclusively on the EPO’s worldwide statistical patent database (PATSTAT). The EPO grants European patents for the 38 contracting states to the European Patent Convention (or Munich Convention), – the EU Member States, the EFTA Member States, some candidate countries (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey), as well as Albania, Monaco and San Marino.

European patent applications refer to applications filed directly under the EPC or to applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and designated to the EPO (Euro-PCT). Patent applications are counted according to the year in which they are filed and are assigned to a country according to the inventor’s place of residence, using fractional counting if there are multiple inventors for a same patent.

By contrast, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) data refer to patents granted; data are recorded by year of publication as opposed to the year of filing. This methodological difference implies that any comparison between EPO and USPTO patent data should be interpreted with caution.

Nevertheless, due to legal rules imposed by the patent application process, information on patent applications is disclosed to the public 18 months or more after the priority date. As a result, patent indicators are faced with the “timeliness” issue, which can extend to more than five years depending on the computational method used to develop indicators. In order to overcome this issue, nowcasting methods have been discussed and developed.

The patent data reported include patent applications filed at the EPO during the reference year, classified by the inventor’s region of residence and in accordance with the international patents classification of applications (IPC). Patent data are regionalised using procedures linking postcodes and/or place names to NUTS level 2 and 3 regions.

High-technology patents are counted following criteria established by the trilateral statistical report (drafted by the EPO, USPTO and the Japan Patent Office (JPO)), where the following technical fields are defined as high-technology groups in accordance with the international patent classification (IPC): computer and automated business equipment; micro-organism and genetic engineering; aviation; communication technology; semiconductors; and lasers.

Context

A patent is a legal title of industrial property granting its owner the exclusive right to exploit an invention commercially for a limited area and time. The patent confers its owner the right to stop others from, among other things, copying, using or selling such invention without authorisation. In return for the exclusive right to exploit it, the technical details of the invention are published. Patentability requires novelty, inventiveness and industrial applicability of the invention.

Patents, as a legal instrument to protect invention, are strongly influenced by the legal system that surrounds them. The European patent framework, in particular, is rather complex, since national systems co-exist with the European patent, and a third system, the unitary patent.

Technological change and innovation have become two main areas of economic analysis in the industrialised countries, as they are determining factors for the productivity and competitiveness of a nation. Science and technology (S&T) activities are crucial for fostering technical innovation, and therefore there is an increasing interest for describing the countries' S&T activities in both quantitative and qualitative terms. In this context, S&T activities are mainly measured by using indirect input, output and impact indicators. It is in the framework of output indicators that patent data are used. In particular, indicators based on patents can be very interesting for assessing the performance of application-oriented types of R&D. Although patents do not cover all kinds of innovation activity, they do cover a considerable part of it. However, patent indicators should be complemented with other S&T indicators, so as to obtain a complete view of the innovation activities of the countries and regions.

The unitary patent - or "European patent with unitary effect" - is a European patent, granted by the EPO under the rules and procedures of the European Patent Convention, to which, upon request of the patent proprietor, unitary effect is given for the territory of the 25 EU Member States participating in the unitary patent scheme.

The unitary patent will co-exist with national patents and with classical European patents. Patent proprietors will in the future be able to choose between various combinations of classical European patents and unitary patents, for example:

  • a unitary patent for the 25 Member States of the European Union which participate in the unitary patent scheme;

together with

  • a classical European patent taking effect in one or more EPC Contracting States which do not participate in the scheme, such as Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, Norway, Iceland, etc.

See also

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Main tables

Patent statistics (t_pat)
Patent applications to the European Patent Office (tsc00032)
European patent applications (tsc00009)
European high-technology patents (tsc00010)
Patent applications to the EPO by priority year by NUTS 2 regions (tgs00040)
High-tech patent applications to the EPO by priority year by NUTS 2 regions (tgs00041)
Patents granted ::by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) (tsc00033)

Database

Patent statistics (pat)
Patent applications to the EPO by priority year (pat_epo)
Patent applications to the EPO by priority year at the national level (pat_epo_nat)
Patent applications to the EPO by priority year at the regional level (pat_epo_reg)
Ownership of inventions (pat_epo_own)
European and international co-patenting (EPO) (pat_epo_cop)
Patent citations (EPO) (pat_epo_cit)
Patents granted by the USPTO by priority year (pat_uspto)
Patents granted by the USPTO by priority year at the national level (pat_uspto_nat)
Ownership of inventions (pat_uspto_own)
European and international co-patenting (USPTO) (pat_uspto_cop)
Patent citations (USPTO) (pat_uspto_cit)
Triadic patent families by earliest priority year at the national level (pat_triadic)
Triadic patent families by earliest priority year at the national level (pat_td_ntot)

Methodology / Metadata

Source data for tables and figures (MS Excel)

Other information

External links


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