Patenting by European universities on the rise

European universities are behind more than 10% of all patent applications filed at the EPO from within Europe. However, wide variations in patterns of ownership and commercialisation are much in evidence.

Europe’s universities are becoming increasingly vibrant workshops for many inventions in recent decades. Amongst European applicants to the European Patent Office (EPO), they were responsible for over 10% of patent applications in 2019 (up from around 6% in 2000). The growing role that universities play in patenting and commercialising inventions is revealed in a study published today by the EPO’s Observatory on Patents and Technology, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (Fraunhofer ISI). The study is based on data from over 1 200 universities and their knowledge transfer offices (KTOs) over twenty years (2000 to 2020).

“Europe has a longstanding tradition of academic excellence, but we sometimes struggle to turn research into commercial success,” said EPO President, António Campinos. “This study sheds light on academic inventiveness across Europe to further inform policies and strategies. By leveraging patents through licensing, collaboration or spin-outs, universities can amplify their impact, driving both market and social value. As the recent Draghi report underscores, there is still significant work to be done to achieve a single market for research and technology in Europe, since our study reveals that 10% of startups with academic patents now move to the US”.

Direct university ownership of patent applications is increasing

The study investigated “academic patents”, namely applications originating at universities or their KTOs and which have one or more named inventors who are academic researchers. Such applications can either be filed in the name of the university itself and/or their KTO (“direct academic patents”); or be filed in the name of the researcher(s), their spin-out, their sponsor or some other company (“indirect academic patents”). The proportion of direct academic patents has risen from 20% in 2000 to 45% in 2019. However, the different regulations with regards to ownership and management of IP at the national as well as university level leads to wide variations in how often a university itself is the applicant. This in turn leads to variations in the strategies and partners chosen to bring to market innovations from university labs.

Academic patents as a share of all European patent applications filed from EPO member states, 2000-2019

High concentrations of academic patents at some universities and in some countries

The landscape is dominated by a handful of patent-active universities (5%), which between them are responsible for half of all academic patents to the EPO including, for example, the University of Grenoble Alpes, Technical University of Munich, University of Oxford, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, University of Copenhagen, and Polytechnic University of Milan, among others. Larger countries with well-established industries (e.g. France, German, UK, Italy) account for significant numbers of academic patents in absolute terms. However, applicants in countries with lower overall numbers of patent applications to the EPO tend to file relatively high proportions of academic patents.

Teamwork shapes national innovation landscapes – but Europe remains fragmented

The study also reveals the high degree to which universities co-operate with each other or with public research organisations (PROs), research hospitals, industry, or SMEs, with a large number of academic patents filed jointly. The strong role of large PROs as co-applicants in France, for example, is much in evidence. What is also clear is that very few of these co-operations are trans-national, pointing to the persistent fragmentation of the EU’s single market when it comes to research and innovation.

Last month’s report on the future of European competitiveness by Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank, points to the lack of connected innovation clusters across countries and sectors – spanning both private industry and universities – as a key obstacle in the innovation pipeline. The recent creation of the Unitary Patent marks a concrete step towards addressing these challenges, complementing other EU initiatives to promote industry-academia collaboration and provide financial support for science-based startups.

Improved insights into investment-ready startups, spin-outs and universities

Accompanying the launch of this study, the EPO’s free Deep Tech Finder (DTF) has been expanded to include almost 900 European universities with pending or granted European patent applications. This tool already contains the business profiles and patent portfolios of over 9 250 investment-ready startups, of which over 1 500 are university spin-outs. The features of the DTF make it easy to filter startups by growth stage, industry sector or their technical field, as well as enabling searches by the names of startups, universities or investors.

Join the discussion at today’s free live online event

The EPO’s Observatory on Patents and Technology is hosting a free live event to discuss the findings of the study and introduce the latest features of the DTF: Patents and innovation in European universities. Listen to key experts in the panel debate and join today’s live workshops to share your views and experiences on commercialisation of university-based inventions.

Collaboration with national patent offices

This study, update of the Deep Tech Finder, and online event launch are part of the initiatives from the EPO’s Observatory in collaboration with national patent offices. For this project, experts from 26 national patent offices—including those of Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom— have contributed valuable national and local insights, data, and outreach support.