Austrian companies filed 2,388 patents with the European Patent Office (EPO) last year, a new high, the EPO announced on Tuesday. The number of submissions increased by 3.4 percent from 2021. In terms of population, Austria remains in seventh place with 266 applications per million – meanwhile, China has doubled its submissions over the past five years.
In total, patent applications to the EPO increased by 2.5 percent to 193,460 compared to 2021, with a growing non-European share. The overall growth is mainly due to the continued strong increase in applications from China, which, with 19,041 entries, rose sharply by 15.1 percent and ranks fourth among countries with the highest number of applications. According to the EPA, the number of applications in China has more than doubled in the past five years.
USA with the most submissions
The US continues to lead the world rankings with almost a quarter of all submissions (48,088 applications; an increase of 2.9 percent), followed by Germany, which recorded a minus of 4.7 percent with 24,684 submissions. Registrations from the third strongest country, Japan, also fell slightly (21,567 registrations; minus 0.4 percent). In the overall list of countries with the most patents, Austria ranks 14th.
Weighted by population, Switzerland is by far the best with 1031 patent applications per million inhabitants. Sweden (482), Denmark (453), the Netherlands (387), Finland (386), Germany (297) and Austria (266) follow. The EU-27 average is 151 applications.
Digital technologies as an innovation impulse
For the EPO, the rising number of filings proves that innovation activity remained robust despite the global economic uncertainties in the previous year. In a press release, EPA President António Campinos sees a “continued uptick” in green innovations such as clean energy technologies. The continued strong increase in patent applications in digital technologies and semiconductors shows how the fourth industrial revolution is permeating many industries and impacting everyday life.
Of the applications from Austria, the sector “Electrical machines/appliances/energy” came first with 341 submissions (plus 4.3 percent). Strong growth was recorded in “semiconductors” (up 50.8 percent) and “computer technology” (up 32 percent).
Vienna with the most entries
According to the provinces, companies from Vienna filed most often with 612 patent applications (minus 0.8 percent), followed by Upper Austria (539; plus 6.3 percent) and Styria (315; plus 12.5 percent). In fourth place comes Vorarlberg (285; plus 11.8 percent), followed by Lower Austria (224; minus 10.4 percent), Carinthia (173; plus 19.3 percent), Tyrol (134; plus 1.5 percent ) and Salzburg (99; minus 13.2 percent) and Burgenland (7; minus 22.2 percent).
Huawei’s largest patent applicant in the world
As in the previous year, the OMV chemical subsidiary Borealis was the most active Austrian company with 197 patent applications. They are followed by the Zumtobel subsidiary Tridonic (93), the car supplier ZKW (61), the printed circuit board manufacturer AT&S (55) and the technology company Fronius (52).
Worldwide, Huawei was the largest patent applicant at the EPO with 4505 applications, followed by LG (3510), Qualcomm (2966), Samsung (2874) and Ericsson (1827). Among the ten most active companies are four from Europe, two each from South Korea and the US, and one each from China and Japan.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
