Brussels, 06/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - The year 2012 was a particularly productive one for the European Patent Office, which saw the number of patent applications from the 38 countries of the organisation break the record year of 2008, the Office has announced in a press release. In total, the EPO registered 257,744 patent applications from all over the world in 2012, or an increase of 5.2% compared to 2011 (244,934), the Office explains. Overall, European businesses made a good showing, but Asian inventors remain particularly dynamic.
Around 36.5% of the applications came from the 38 member states of the EPO (2011: 37.5% of all applications filed), the press release adds, whilst 63.5% came from outside of Europe (2011: 62.5%). In the individual country classifications, the United States took top spot (24.6%), followed by Japan (20.1%), Germany (13.3%), China (7.3%) and Korea (5.6%). After Germany, the most active European countries were France (4.7%), Switzerland (3.2%), the United Kingdom (2.6%) and the Netherlands (2.5%).
The EPO also notes that the number of applications coming from Europe once again increased. With 2.3% growth, the number of filings from Europe has recovered well from a slight decline in 2011 (-0.9%). However, the biggest increases continue to come from Chinese (+11.1%), Korean (+9.3%) and Japanese (+9.1%) companies. Asian countries accounted for more than half of total growth, the EPO states. As regards specialities, European companies were particularly present in the field of transport (mainly automotive and aeronautics), where 60% of all applications came from EPO states. With a 50% share, European businesses also led the way in measurement technology, engines, pumps, turbines (particularly in clean energy technologies) and organic fine chemistry.
Medical technology was again the field with the most applications, with US (42%) and European (38%) applicants dominating. In computers and IT, American and Asian companies held sway. China also dominates the digital communications sector, with 42% of all Chinese patent applications coming from that field.
Lastly, of the 10 companies which filed the most patent applications, four of them are European but, for the first time, the EPO explains, an Asian company, Samsung, leads the field, followed by Siemens and BASF. (SP/transl.fl)