In March 2022, the European Patent Office published its annual Patent Index. According to the latest results, in 2021, the EPO received 188 600 patent applications, an increase of 4.5% in comparison with 2020, showing a significant recovery from the small declined recorded in 2020 due to the pandemic.

The EU-27 Member States were the largest applicant with a share of 36% patent applications or 67 713 patent applications; while the EPO States, which include 38 countries, accounted for about 44% of the total patent applications in 2021. By individual countries, the United States were the largest applicant with a share of 25%, followed by Germany with 14%, Japan with 11% and China with 9%. The top 10 is completed with France (6%), South Korea (5%), Switzerland (4%), Netherlands (3%), United Kingdom (3%) and Sweden (3%).

In comparison with 2020, EU-27 patent applications in 2021 increased slightly by 2.7%%. However, there is strong variation among the Member States, ranging from -45.5% in Romania to +46.7% in Greece. Only 10 EU Members States recorded a decline. Of the EU countries with a number of patent applications above 1000, Sweden and Finland were the best performing countries with a growth rate above 10%, with also notable increases for Denmark, Spain and Italy. From the top applicants, only France recorded a small decline of -0.7% in 2021. Important to mention that small variations in the absolute number of patent applications have a significant impact on the percentage change when the initial number of patent applications is small.

Among the top 10 technology fields, computer technology and digital communication recorded the highest growth rates with 9.7%% and 9.4%, respectively. On the other hand, organic fine chemistry was the only top technology field that declined in 2021 (-1.8%). The field with the highest number of patents was digital communication with 15 400 patent applications, overtaking for the first time medical technology with 15324 patent applications (+0.8% growth), followed by computer technology (14671 patents). By applicant, Huawei was the leading patent applicant at the EPO in 2021, followed by Samsung and LG. Ericsson and Siemens both moved up a position, to fourth and fifth respectively.

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