Dutch companies filed 3.5 per cent more patent applications with the European Patent Office (EPO) last year than a year earlier. This is the strongest growth since 2015 and also deviates from the European trend, with European Union countries filing -0.5 per cent fewer patent applications on average last year.
This is revealed by the EPO Patent Index 2022. With 6,806 European patent applications, the Netherlands is the third largest applicant within the EU and is the eighth largest country in the world as an applicant for European patents. In total, Dutch parties filed 6,806 European patent applications. This makes the Netherlands the third largest applicant within the EU and the eighth largest country worldwide as an applicant for European patents.
'Innovation strength remains strong despite economic downturn'
Demand for patents grew again in 2022. A total of 193,460 applications were received at the EPO from all parts of the world. This is an increase is of 2.5 per cent from a year earlier. The increase shows that the innovativeness of companies worldwide remained robust last year despite the international economic downturn, reports the EPO.
"The year 2022 saw solid and stable growth in the number of patent applications for the development of sustainable technologies and applications for the generation, distribution and storage of electricity," António Campinos, president of the European Patent Office, told Reuters. "This boom is an important driver of the energy transition. Innovative companies are also leading the way en route to a future in which the fourth industrial revolution is having an increasing impact on various economic sectors and expanding into many areas, from transport to healthcare. This is visible in the significant growth in the number of patent applications in digital technology and semiconductors."
Organic fine chemicals, electrical machinery and computers
Dutch patent applications cover a wide range of categories. The top three categories in which Dutch patent applications were filed were medical technology (+0.6 per cent), electrical machinery, appliances, energy (+6.9 per cent) and organic fine chemicals (+19.4 per cent).
Organic fine chemicals are also among the top 15 tech fields in which the number of applications experienced the biggest increase last year. Electrical machinery and computer technology (+8.5 per cent) also showed strong growth.
That money also applies to semiconductors (+41.8 per cent). However, the absolute number of semiconductor applications is significantly lower than in other categories. incidentally, significantly lower than in the other categories. The Netherlands ranks seventh in the field of semiconductors at the EPO in 2022.
Philips in top 10 applicants
With 1,338 patent applications (+2.1 per cent), Royal Philips is the Dutch company with the most European patent applications in 2022. In the entire list of applicants, the company ranks ninth. Philips is also second in the ranking of companies with the most European patent applications in the field of medical technology. The company is just below US-based Johnson & Johnson.
In the computer technology category, Philips also scored high. Here, the company ranks position 11 in the ranking of all companies worldwide and number 7 in the measurement technology category. According to the EPO, the high scores illustrate Philips' innovation activities in various sectors.
Signify also scores well
Signify is the second Dutch company with the most European patent applications after Philips. The company rose from 24th to 22nd in the 2022 international EPO rankings. After LG, Signify filed the second highest number of applications in the electrical machinery/devices/energy category. It also ranked fifth in the 'Other specialised machinery' category. This category includes applications such as machine parts for various industries and 3D printing.
The ranking of Dutch companies that filed the most patents at the EPO also includes several companies active in the semiconductor industry.
North Brabant in top 5 best scoring European regions
Zooming in on the Netherlands, it appears that relatively many patent applications were filed from the province of North Brabant. With 3,547 applications, North Brabant is the Dutch region with the most patent applications at the EPO. South Holland follows with 1,255 applications and North Holland with 619 applications.
In practice, this means that North Brabant accounts for more than half of all Dutch applications. In the Top 5 European regions with the most European patent applications in 2022, it ranks fifth.
If we look at the innovative strength of cities based on the number of patent applications, Eindhoven tops the list in the Netherlands. In the European ranking, Eindhoven ranks third. The Dutch city has to beat Munich and Paris.
International and European trends
The top five countries that filed the most patent applications worldwide include the United States (US), Germany, Japan, China and France. The growing number of patent applications is due in part to China, where the number of applications rose by 15.1 per cent. The US (+2.9 per cent) and Korea (+10 per cent) also showed growth.
The number of applications is also rising in most European countries. Switzerland leads in terms of the number of applications per capita, followed by Sweden and Denmark. The Netherlands ranks fourth. According to the EPO, this underlines the strong innovation capacity of the Netherlands. Germany is an exception within the EU with 4.7 per cent contraction in patent applications.
The EPO figures also show that patent applications by no means always come from large companies. For example, one in five applications in 2022 came from an individual inventor or a small or medium-sized organisation with fewer than 250 employees. 7 per cent of applications came from universities and public research organisations.
The EPO report is available here.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Photo: Michal Jarmoluk via Pixabay
