Uit het persbericht: "Patent filings at the European Patent Office (EPO) grew by 2.8% last year and hit another all-time high, showing that Europe continues to be a key market for innovation. In 2013 the EPO received 266 000 patent filings, compared to 258 000 in 2012. The EPO granted 66 700 European patents, which was 1.6% more than in 2012 (65 600) and the highest number ever.
"Demand for patent protection in Europe is up for the fourth consecutive year," said EPO President Benoît Battistelli. "This is proof that companies from around the world continue to see Europe more and more as a premier hub for innovation. The strong position of European companies in patent-intense technologies also underlines the central role these industry sectors play in generating employment and growth in the EU economy."[...]
Europe: most applications per million inhabitants
The technological strength of the leading European countries is also reflected in the figures for European applications per million inhabitants: With 832 applications Switzerland tops the list, ahead of Sweden (402), Finland (360), Denmark and the Netherlands (both 347). A comparison by economic region sees Japan with 177 applications clearly ahead of South Korea and the EU-28 average (both 129), the US (107) and China (3).
Europe stable, with regional differences
European industry maintained its patenting activities at the same level as in the previous year, with marked regional differences, however. Especially the Netherlands (+17.2%), Denmark (+8.1%), Sweden (+7.5%) but also member states with lower filing levels, such as Portugal (+34.5%), Turkey (+31.9%), the Czech Republic (+26.5%) and Ireland (+9.4%), showed marked upward trends over 2012, while filings from France (+1.1%), Finland (+0.6%) and Austria (+0.2%) grew moderately. Other countries saw a drop in patent filings, in particular Belgium (-7.4%), Germany (-5.4%), the UK (-3%), Italy (-2.7%), Switzerland (-2%) and Spain (-1%).[...]
Five European companies in top ten, Samsung in the lead
This is also reflected in the company ranking, where Samsung was again the top applicant (2 833 applications). With five companies in the top ten, however, European firms stood their ground in their home market, led by Siemens (2nd), Philips (3rd), BASF (5th), Robert Bosch (6th) and Ericsson (10th)."
Lees het persbericht hier. Lees het Nederlandse persbericht hier.
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Patent filings at the European Patent Office reach all-time high
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