Huawei tops European top ten patent list, Siemens top in Germany
Huawei leads the list of top ten patent filing in Europe in 2022, with battery, semiconductor and digital technologies driving record numbers of applications.
The European Patent Office (EPO) received 193 460 applications in 2022, an increase of 2.5% on the previous year and a new record. This follows an increase of 4.7% in 2021 after a small Covid-driven dip of -0.6% in 2020.
The other leading applicants were LG (up from 3rd in 2021), Qualcomm (jumping from 7th to 3rd), Samsung and Ericsson. Siemens at #6 was the leading European company. Materials company BASF was at #8 and Philips at #9. Robert Bosch comes in at #11 and Nokia at #16.
Overall applications from European companies were static.
Siemens filed 1,735 patent applications with the European Patent Office in 2022, down from 2650 in 2021. These covered data security; machine learning and artificial intelligence; modelling and simulation; transportation in smart cities; additive manufacturing; and blockchain.
“We’re not slackening on innovations, despite external challenges such as the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inflation. These results underscore Siemens’ innovation capabilities and our focus on the entire range of industrial applications as well as patent quality,” said Dr. Peter Körte, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Strategy Officer of Siemens.
The US was the top country for applications, up 2.5%, while applications from Germany at #2 fell by 4.7% but Ireland, Switzerland and Belgium posted strong growth
“When it comes to the promise of green innovation, there has been solid, sustained growth in filings related to clean technologies and other means that create, transfer and store electricity,” said EPO President António Campinos. “It’s this ongoing boom that is navigating the energy transition. Innovators are also working towards a smarter future, as the fourth industrial revolution takes hold of our lives, sectors and industries – and spreads far into other areas from transport to healthcare. We can see this in the relentless growth in patent applications in digital technologies and semiconductors.”
Digital communication (+11.2% over 2021) was once again the field with the highest number of patent applications last year, followed closely by medical technology (+1.0%) and computer technology (+1.8%). The big increase in patent applications in digital technologies is permeating many other areas such as healthcare, transport and agriculture.
European patents filed by country 2022
Electrical machinery/apparatus/energy (+18.2%), a field that includes inventions related to clean energy, was the fastest growing among the top ten technology fields, driven in part by the boom in battery technologies (+48.0%). The areas of semiconductors (+19.9%) and audio-visual technology (+8.1%) also grew strongly, albeit from a smaller base. Patent activity in pharmaceuticals continued its steady rise (+1.0%), squeezing past transport (-2.6%) to break into the top five technology fields for the first time in the past decade. Biotechnology (+11.0%) also continued to boom.
The top five countries of origin for patent applications at the EPO in 2022 were the United States, a quarter of the total, followed by Germany, Japan, China and France. The growth in applications in 2022 was mainly fuelled by filings from China (+15.1% compared with 2021), which have more than doubled in the past five years, and to a lesser extent by filings from the US (+2.9%) and the Republic of Korea (+10.0%).
Although the number of patent applications originating from the 39 European Patent Organisation countries (83 955) was at the same level as in 2021 (83 894, +0.1%), their share of the total shrunk by a further percentage point to just below 44%. The growing share of applications to the EPO originating from outside Europe highlights the attractiveness of the European technology market for companies from around the world.
A significant proportion of the EPO’s applications come from smaller entities: in 2022 one in five patent applications to the EPO originating in Europe came from an individual inventor or a small or medium-sized enterprise (fewer than 250 employees). A further 7% came from universities and public research organisations.
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