US, China and Japan dominate patent filings in Europe

Over half of new patent applications in Europe last year came from just three countries, the US, China and Japan, with more than a quarter of the applications coming from the US alone, according to the latest figures from the European Patent Office (EPO).

China reached fourth position, recording an increase of 18 per cent in the number of patents filed in 2014 compared to 2013. While Japan ranked second, the number of patent applications it filed with EPO fell by 4.4 per cent.

“Demand for patent protection in Europe has been growing steadily, and is up for the fifth year in a row,” said EPO president Benoȋt Battistelli. Over 247,000 patent applications were received in 2014.

Samsung, the Korean electronics company, was again the biggest applicant. The world’s largest smartphone maker filed 2,541 patents in Europe for the full year. Five European companies in the top ten for filings are Philips, Siemens, BASF, Robert Bosch and Ericsson.

Among European nations, only Germany made it into the top five countries for patent applications at third. Korea rounded out the top five.

There was an increase in applications compared with the previous year, from the Netherlands, France and the UK. Applications from Finland, Switzerland and Spain fell.

In terms of the number of applications filed with the EPO relative to the population of a country, Switzerland came first with 848 applications per million inhabitants. Second and third place went to Finland at 416 and the Netherlands, 406. The first non-European country was Japan in ninth place at 173 applications per million inhabitants. The average for the 28 EU member states was 131 applications per million inhabitants. 

Biotech was the biggest single category, with just over 5,900 patents filed in 2014, followed by clean tech and computers.

Patenting in Europe is considered expensive, so it is little surprise that 64 per cent of last year’s activity came from large companies. Overall, 30 per cent of filings were made by small and medium-sized companies while only 6 per cent came from universities.

International filing fliers

The US dominated the list, with 71,700, or nearly a third, of all patents filed.

US companies are prolific in computers, medical innovations, and digital communications. The semiconductor company Qualcomm took the lead amongst US peers, with 1,459 patent filings. It was followed closely by Intel and United Technologies. Microsoft, Google and Apple rank respectively at 4th, 9th and 17th among US companies filing in Europe.

The most prolific from China was telecoms giant Huawei, which became the first Chinese company to feature in the top ten. Huawei’s surge in filings was the most dramatic recorded – up by 50 per cent in one year.

While registrations for new inventions at EPO increased, its share of world patent applications is slipping. Patent offices in the US and China continue to set the pace. The gap between China and its counterparts has widened considerably in the last years, a time that has seen China’s State Intellectual Property Office became the world’s top office in terms of patent filings received.

Success rate

Of course applications are only one part of the story. In 2014, EPO rubber-stamped 64,600 patents, with most patent approvals going to US companies, followed by applicants from Germany, Japan, France and Switzerland.

Granting rates are typically low, with over half of filings received by the EPO turned away. Biotech firms find it the hardest to get a patent application granted, said Battistelli, who put this down to the rigorous tangle of health regulations in Europe.

The grant figures for 2014 are based on filings made in 2010. On average, it takes three to four years between filing a patent request and a decision on whether to grant patent protection.

Unitary patent latest

This long examination period between filing and granting, will not become shorter under Europe’s new unitary patent system, Battistelli said. However, the new system promises to make patenting simpler and cheaper when it comes into force in 2016.

Currently patents granted by the EPO must be registered and enforced at a national level. In future there will be a choice: either register the patent country- by-country like now, or register it as a unitary patent, providing protection across the 25 countries signed up to take part.

Today, the average cost involved in getting a patent is €25-€35,000. This does not include the swathe of indirect costs, such as paying staff to administer all the necessary legal paperwork, annual top up fees and translation charges.

Battistelli said he expects the total administrative cost of filing and maintaining an average unitary patent to come down by roughly 70 per cent. An announcement on fees will be made in June this year.