Life sciences sector records strongest patent application growth at the EPO

Across all sectors, the European Patent Office (EPO) received 174 317 applications in 2018, an increase of 4.6 percent compared to the previous year. The EPO also granted 127 625 European patents, up 21 percent on 2017 numbers.

Growth fuelled by European companies

In 2018, businesses and inventors continued to file large numbers of patent applications at the EPO, with the five top filing regions – Europe, the US, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea – all showing increases (Fig.: Top 50 countries for applications).

Companies from the EPO member states filed 3.8 percent more European patent applications in 2018, their strongest growth since 2010. Indeed, European companies accounted for almost 40 percent of the overall growth in filings – more than China, Japan and the Republic of Korea combined.

This year’s report also underlines the attractiveness of the European market to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). An analysis of the patent applications originating from European countries shows that every fifth application comes from an SME, which EPO says demonstrates that patent protection is of great importance to individual inventors and smaller organisations.

This year’s annual results are good news for the European economy: Demand for patent protection continues to grow, which means inventors and businesses see Europe as an attractive and valuable technology market to innovate and invest. Europe, therefore, needs a competitive and robust patent system, especially given that in the EU, IP-intensive industries account for around 38 percent of jobs, 42 percent of GDP and 90 percent of external trade. The patent system helps businesses build a strong technology portfolio to boost economic growth, said EPO President António Campinos.

Pharma and biotech show the strongest growth

The top three fields of technology at the EPO were medical technology, digital communications, and computer technology. Pharmaceuticals is now the seventh largest field at the EPO (7 441 applications), and biotechnology the eighth (6 742 applications).

The number of patent applications from Europe accounts for much of the growth at the EPO in the life sciences area. European companies filed 3 156 patent applications related to pharmaceuticals in 2018. This compares with 2 797 patent applications from the United States (US), 423 from Japan, 227 from China and 194 from Korea.

In biotechnology, European firms filed 3 269 patent applications, compared to 2 173 applications originating from the US, 515 from Japan, 191 from Korea and 185 from China. The 38 EPO member states filed 48 percent of the European patent applications in biotechnology and 42 percent in the pharmaceutical sector, and patenting activity by European firms grew significantly in both sectors in 2018.

This is a trend reflected in other sectors; 40 percent of the overall increase in patent filings at the EPO in 2018 can be attributed to applications filed by European firms – more than China, Japan and the Republic of Korea combined.

Germany, Switzerland, and France lead in life sciences

Within the European life sciences industry, German firms are responsible for the largest share of patent applications at the EPO in 2018. In biotechnology, 11 percent of the patent applications came from German companies, who posted a 15.1 percent growth since 2017.

Germany was followed by Switzerland (7 percent share, +11 percent), France (6 percent share, -23.9 percent), the Netherlands (6 percent share, +23.2 percent) and Denmark (4 percent share, -4.2 percent).

Similarly, in the pharmaceutical sector, Germany leads with an 8 percent share (although the number of applications dropped by -4.3 percent over 2017), closely followed by France (6 percent share, +6.7 percent), Switzerland (6 percent share, +29.6 percent), the UK (4 percent share, +20.3 percent) and the Netherlands (3 percent share, +11.1 percent).