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Filings growth forges ahead at the European Patent Office

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Munich, 19 June 2006 - The demand for patent protection in Europe continues to rise. In 2005, the European Patent Office received a record total of over 193 600 patent applications, 7.2% more than in the previous year. The proportion of filings from European countries remained unchanged, at 49.5%.

This trend is still holding: "For the current year we expect a further increase in patent applications. The signs are that we shall pass the 200 000 mark for the first time", says EPO President Alain Pompidou.

Strong growth in Germany, the Netherlands and Korea

The European patent grant procedure was initiated for around 128 700 of the applications filed in 2005 (2004: 123 700). 63 650 of these applications came from the 31 member states of the European Patent Organisation (61 200), 32 700 (32 600) from the USA and 21 500 (20 600) from Japan.

Among European countries, Germany was responsible for the largest number of applications, with 18.5% of the total (23 800: +774), followed by France, with 6.2% (8 030: -68), and the Netherlands, which at 7 800 recorded the biggest rise in filings (up by 800 on 2004), bringing its share of the total to 6.1%. Growth was also significant in Switzerland (5 027 applications: +370), Italy (4 200: +199), Denmark (1 174: +190) and Belgium (1 660: +169), whereas the figures for the United Kingdom (4 649: -127) and Finland (1 514: -86) were slightly down on the previous year.

Filing activity was particularly strong in South Korea, with 3 850 applications, bringing the country's share of the total to nearly 3% (2004: 2 870 filings, 2.3%). Considerable growth was also seen in China (538 filings/2004: 419), India (392/265), Brazil (130/95) and South Africa (120/103).

Medical technology takes the lead

The proportion of applications in the ten technical fields with particularly high levels of patent activity once again showed a slight rise, from 55.5% in 2004 to just under 56%. Medical technology, with 14 700 applications, accounted for 11.4% of the total, followed by electronic communications (12 850: 10%) and data processing (8 670: 6.7%). The strongest growth was in vehicle technology, with a rise of nearly 7% to 4 175 applications (3.2% of the total).

Fewer granted patents

For procedural reasons, the total number of published European patents (53 300) fell some way below the previous year's figure (58 700: -9.3%). EPO President Pompidou explains: "The drop in numbers is partly due to the fact that we recently started to publish a first opinion on patentability with the search report. Applicants are thus provided at a very early stage with an indication of their chances of getting a patent, and they often decide to withdraw if the prospects do not look good enough". The largest numbers of patents were granted by the EPO for Germany (12 500), France (3 740), the United Kingdom (2 150) and Switzerland (1 910). 13 000 European patents went to US applicants, followed by their Japanese counterparts (9 550). Oppositions were filed against 2 960 patents (2004: 3 100). In the current year the Office expects the number of granted patents to rise again.

At 163 100, the number of searches on patent applications was 1.6% down compared with the previous year (165 800), but examinations rose by 10.1% to over 84 000 (2004: 76 330).

The EPO had a total staff of 6 118 (2004: 5 918), over 3 600 of them patent examiners.

For further information please contact:

Rainer Osterwalder
European Patent Office
(+49 89) 2399-1821
press@epo.org