Asia Leads EPO Application Surge

06 March 2013

The European Patent Office has announced that it received a recordsetting 258,000 patent applications in 2012, a 5.7% increase over 2011, when it received 244,000 applications. In the same year, the EPO published 65,700 granted patents, 5.8% more than in 2011 (62,115). Japan, China and South Korea were among the nations filing the most applications with the EPO.

“This new peak in European patent filings for the third year in a row shows that companies from Europe and around the world are continuing to seek protection for their inventions, and that Europe remains an attractive market for new technologies,” said EPO president Benoît Battistelli. “This growth is part of a consistent, long-term trend, and is clear evidence of the confidence of industry in the value of European patents.”

As far as the origin of filings is concerned, the trends observed in recent years persisted, the EPO said. A clear majority of the filings – 63% – came from non-European countries, a rise of 1% from 2011. The top five positions in 2012 were held by the US (24.7%), Japan (19.9%), Germany (13.4%), China (7.3%) and South Korea (5.5%). Globally, Asian companies continued to fuel the growth in filings: more than half of the increase comes from Japan, China and South Korea combined. After a stabilization in 2011, US companies reached a new record with 63,777 filings, reinforcing their number one position.

Top Countries of Origin for European Patent Office Filings

Rank

Country

Filings 2011

Filings 2012

Share 2012

Change over 2011

1
2
3
4
5
8
12
20
21
22
24
32
33

US
Japan
Germany
China
SouthKorea
UK
Canada
India
Taiwan
Russia
Singapore
NewZealand
Malaysia

60,134
47,390
33,468
16,932
13,253
6,477
4,090
1,429
1,189
1,031
750
352
272

63,777
51,400
34,590
18,842
14,278
6,763
3,949
1,304
1,177
951
780
306
305

24.7%
19.9%
13.4%
7.3%
5.5%
2.6%
1.5%
0.5%
0.5%
0.4%
0.3%
0.1%
0.1%

6.1%
8.5%
3.4%
11.3%
7.7%
4.4%
-3.4%
-8.7%
-1.0%
-7.7%
4.1%
-13.0%
12.2%

Tags: EPO

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