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Poles submitted 671 applications to the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2023, over 10% more than in 2022. Most applications were filed by the University of Zielona Góra, the AGH University of Science and Technology and the Jagiellonian University, according to a press release of the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland.
In total, the EPO received 199,275 applications last year, 2.9 percent more than a year earlier. The global number of awarded European patents was 104,609, a 28% increase compared to 2022, according to the EPO Patent Index 2023 published last week.
The number of applications from Poland is growing almost four times faster than the global number of applications. A high growth rate is also recorded in patents granted to Polish applicants. In 2023, there were 258 of them, and the increase compared to 2022 was 37.2%.
Poland (671 applications, a 10.5% increase) ranks seventh among European countries in terms of the rate of increase in applications, and tenth among all countries in the world. The countries ahead of Poland in this respect include Lithuania, Croatia, Slovenia and Cyprus.
In 2023, over 23 percent of applications to the EPO originating in Europe were submitted by individual inventors or small and medium-sized enterprises. Another 8 percent came from universities and public research organizations.
The most active entities – 7 out of 10 – submitting inventions from Poland are universities and research institutes. The leaders are the University of Zielona Góra (31 applications), the AGH University of Science and Technology (30) and the Jagiellonian University (14). There are also three Polish companies in the top 10: Fakro PP, Polbionica and Adamed Pharma.
Poland ranks 25th among all patent-filing countries. In first places are: the United States (48,000 applications), Germany (25,000), Japan (22,000), China (20,000) and South Korea (12,000).
Forty three percent of all applications to the EPO came from companies and inventors from 39 member states of the European Patent Organization, and 57 percent were sent from outside Europe.
According to the report, the higher number of patent applications filed with the EPO in 2023 is mainly due to a sharp increase in the number of applications from the Republic of Korea (+21%) and the People's Republic of China (+8.8%). The Republic of Korea entered the top five for the first time, and the number of patent applications from China more than doubled since 2018.
The most active entity among those submitting patents to the European Patent Office in 2023 was again the Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer, Huawei. The telecommunications giant filed over 5,000 patent applications, almost a quarter of all inventions from China. This was followed by Korean companies Samsung and LG, which accounted for two-thirds of all European patent applications from Korea.
The European Patent Office also analysis the level of innovation of individual regions. Among the top 100 most patent-active regions, Warsaw ranks 83rd (161 applications), and Małopolska ranks 95th (119). The leaders in this category are: California, Tokyo and China's Guangdong.
The inventions most frequently submitted to the EPO last year concerned digital communications (including technologies related to mobile networks), medical and computer technologies. However, the largest increase among all technology fields in 2023 occurred in the area of machines, electrical equipment and energy (+12.2% compared to 2022).
The largest number of Polish applications concerned patents in the area of medical technologies (74 applications), pharmaceuticals (41) and civil engineering (37).
'Our latest Patent Index shows that innovation remained vibrant around the world in 2023,’ said EPO President António Campinos.
'The EPO was entrusted with examining more applications than ever before', he added, 'attesting to both the attractiveness of the European technology market and the high quality of our products and services. Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises are making ever-increasing use of patents, with the share of applications from SMEs at its highest level yet last year.’
With small entities in mind, the EPO is introducing new fee reductions from April 1, 2024. The 30% discount will be available to: micro-enterprises, natural persons, non-profit organizations, universities and public research organizations. Find out more at https://uprp.gov.pl/pl/aktualnosci/informacje/lepszy-urzad-patentowy-nowy-uproszcze-system-oplat-od-1-kwietnia-2024-r.
Read about the EPO Patent Index 2023 at www.epo.org. (PAP)
PAP - Science in Poland, Anna Bugajska
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