China Enters Top Five in 2017 Patent Filings at European Patent Office

According to the recently published European Patent Office (EPO) Annual Report 2017, EPO received a total of 165,590 applications in 2017, a record high and an increase of 3.9% from 2016.

 

During the year, the five most active countries of origin for patent filings at EPO were the US, Germany, Japan, France, and China. Among them, China, posting another double-digit increase (16.6%) with 8,330 applications, made it into the top five for the first time.

 

In terms of technical fields, the top three relating to which the Chinese applicants filed most patent applications at EPO during the year were digital communication, computer technology, and telecommunications. Other technical fields also popular among the Chinese applicants included measurement, organic fine chemistry, and biotechnology.

 

As for the top ten applicants, four companies among them were from Europe, three from the US, two from South Korea, and one from China. Heading the list was Chinese company Huawei Technologies (2,398 registrations), which was followed by Siemens (2,220 registrations), LG (2,056 registrations), Samsung (2,016 registrations), and Qualcomm (1,854 registrations).