The EPO has released its annual report for 2017 patenting
activity. Notably, patenting and patent
filings are trending up at 3.9% and 4.4% respectively. In the electrical engineering field,
patenting is up in the audio visual space by 10.6% and semiconductors by 13.5%. In instruments, patenting is up in optics by
15.6% and analysis of biological materials by 12.5%. In chemistry, biotechnology is up 14.5%, but
micro-structural and nanotechnology is down by 12.6%. Interestingly, US nationals as first inventor
lead patent applications in the EPO with a 26% share. The EU member state inventors as a whole have
more nationals as first inventor (47% total). However,
Germany, the leader in the EU, has a 15% share.
Japan has 13%, and China has 5%.
The top three technical fields in patent applications are 1) medical
technology; 2) digital communication; and 3) computer technology. The top ten applicant companies are: 1)
Huawei (China); 2) Siemens (EU); 3) LG (Korea); 4) Samsung (Korea); 5) Qualcomm
(US); 6) Royal Phillips (EU); 7) United Technologies (US); 8) Intel (US); 9)
Robert Bosch (EU); and 10) Ericsson (EU).
Sixty-nine percent of the total applicants are large entities. Twenty-four percent are SMEs/individual
inventors. Seven percent were
universities/public research.
Interestingly, SMEs/individual inventors share is down from 28% in
2016. Universities/public research is up
1 percentage point from 2016.
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