Demand for European patents in 2025 exceeded 200 000 for first time

The EPO Technology Dashboard (formerly Patent Index) shows strong growth in demand for patents for digital and energy technologies. The US and Germany remain top countries of origin, while China enters top three for first time. Uptake for Unitary Patents was high, especially amongst European patentees and SMEs.

A record number of patent applications – 201 974 – were filed at the EPO in 2025, an increase of 1.4% on the previous year. Applications from Europe, including all 39 EPO member states, rose by 0.4% (EU27: +0.7%), while those from outside Europe were up 2.1%.

“The record volume of patent applications underlines Europe’s innovative capacity and its appeal as a global technology market,” said EPO President António Campinos. “The Technology Dashboard 2025 tracks progress and gaps across industrial sectors, helping policymakers in Europe identify priority areas and target actions and investments to strengthen tech sovereignty and competitiveness. While the Unitary Patent is already removing barriers and accelerating the transition to a more integrated European innovation market, continued focus is needed, especially on strategic sectors such as AI, semiconductors, health and quantum technologies.”

Technology trends: Computer technology still in the lead

Computer technology remained the leading field in 2025 with 17 844 applications (+6.1%), boosted by an increase in patent applications for AI with technologies for neural networks and image recognition (+9.5%), and in the small but fast-growing area of quantum technologies (+37.9%). While the US accounted for the largest overall share of computer technology applications, European innovators held the biggest share in both the AI and quantum sub-fields, and increased filings by +2.6% and +22.1% respectively. [See insight into computer technology]

Digital communication, which includes inventions for mobile networks, ranked second and recorded the strongest overall growth of the leading fields (+11.4%) driven by the advent of 6G technologies. Filings were up +23.5% and +22.1% from European and Korean applicants respectively. The field was led by applicants from the US, China and Europe, with European innovators posting 23.5% growth.

Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy saw 16 997 applications (+5.3%), driven by a 14.6% increase in filings for battery technologies, which now comprise 45.1% of this field. The growth in filings from applicants in Asia was especially notable: Japan (+23.8 %), P.R. China (+ 25.7%) and R. Korea (+34.9%). [See insight into battery and energy technologies] Semiconductor technology also continued its upward trend (+7.6%), with European applicants holding the largest share, followed by the US.

Patent applications for medical technologies rose to 15 905 filings (+1.3%), dominated by European and US companies, universities and research institutes. Biotechnology, which can be used in medical treatment and diagnosis, as well as in agriculture, industrial or marine settings, saw 8 203 filings (-3.3%), a small drop after eight years of growth. Pharmaceuticals saw 7 833 filings (-6.3%), declining for a second year and now at a level equal to 2019. This highlights the importance of EU legislative proposals for a Unitary Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) and for a Regulation to strengthen Europe’s biotechnology and biomanufacturing sectors.

Overall, European innovators led in eight of the top ten technology fields. Europeans were notably dominant in fields such as Transport; Measurement (which includes sensors); and Other special machines (which includes 3D-printing machines and a variety of production tools).

Country trends: P.R. China and R. Korea post strongest growth

Patent applications from all 39 EPO member states rose by just +0.4%, thanks in particular to increases from applicants based in those countries that typically see smaller filing volumes. Applications from P.R. China rose by +9.7%, putting Japan (+1.1%) into third place for the first time. The US, though still the second largest source of applications, declined (-1.6%) whilst R. Korea posted strong growth (+9.5%).

Within Europe, growth was driven by countries such as Denmark (+5.2%), Austria (+5.0%), Spain (+2.9%), and especially Finland (+44.0%), even as filings from traditional leaders like Germany (-2.2%), France (-0.4%), Switzerland (-0.5%), Netherlands (-0.7%), the UK (-3.3%), Italy (-1.8%) and Sweden (-4.3%) were down.

Top applicants: four of the top ten are from Europe

The top three companies – Samsung (R. Korea), Huawei (P.R. China) and LG (R. Korea) – all consolidated their dominant positions from 2024 with further growth. Qualcomm (US) retained fourth place, and Nokia (Finland) rose seven places to fifth, filing over 1 000 applications more than in 2024. Three other European companies appear in the Top 10: Siemens and BASF from Germany, and Ericsson from Sweden. Microsoft was the second US applicant in the Top 10, and battery manufacturer CATL the second applicant from P.R. China.

The top ten applicants to the EPO in 2025 saw three new entrants: Nokia up seven places to #5; Microsoft up six places to #9; and CATL, a leading battery producer from P.R. China, up four places to #10.

One in four patent applications includes a woman inventor

In 2025, 26% of all patent applications to the EPO coming from Europe named at least one woman as an inventor (up +1% on 2024). Among major filing countries (over 2 000 applications), Spain led with 42%, followed by Finland (34%), Belgium (32%) and France (32%) and Denmark (30%).

Small companies use patent system to drive innovation

In 2025, 26% of applications originating in Europe came from individual inventors or SMEs (companies with fewer than 250 employees) and another 7% from universities and public research organisations (see graph Breakdown of applicants by category). This highlights the patent system’s appeal to smaller entities, further strengthened by recent targeted fee reductions for micro-enterprises, individuals, non-profits, universities and research institutions.

Unitary Patent increasingly popular in its third year

The Unitary Patent system launched in June 2023 offers innovators simpler and more accessible patent protection across 18 EU Member States with a single request to the EPO. Unitary protection was requested for 34 357 European patents granted in 2025, some 28.7% of all grants (up from 25.6% in 2024). In 2025, the overall uptake rate amongst Europeans stood at 40.0%, ahead of forecasts. Amongst European universities, public research organisations, SMEs and micro-entities, their share of Unitary Patents was 48.3% (up from 38.4% in 2024), proving the attractiveness of the Unitary Patent, especially to smaller innovators. Interest in the system from outside Europe is steadily picking up, with a noticeable increase in uptake rate amongst Chinese patentees (22.6%, up from 17.8% in 2024). Uptake rates were notably higher from patentees from Canada, Australia, India, Israel, Hong Kong (SAR) and Taiwan, Province of China, at levels comparable with or exceeding European uptake rates.

The EPO Technology Dashboard is the new name for the former annual Patent Index, presenting statistics for applications to the European Patent Office in the previous year, as well as for granted patents and Unitary Patents, and placing them into a longer-term context with trends for technologies and countries stretching back 10 years.