Record Number of Patents Granted by EPO in 2016

In the recently published Annual Report 2016, European Patent Office (EPO) shared information about the record number of granted patents in 2016 – 96 000, which is 40% more than in 2015.  In 2016, EPO received about 160 000 European patent applications, nearly at the same level as in 2015. Such high number indicates a strong interest of innovating firms to assert their patent rights on the European technology market. Despite a slight decrease, the Medical technology  remained the number one field in which the most applications were filed. The strongest growth was seen in Electrical machinery/apparatus/energy, followed by Transport and Computer technology. Pharmaceuticals and Organic fine chemistry saw the greatest drop in the number of applications. European companies filed the most applications in nine of the ten most active fields of technology, with US companies leading only in Computers. Click HERE to find out more.

Source: European Patent Office, Annual Report 2016, Country Profiles