China Ranks Fifth by Origin of Patent Applications Filed at EPO in 2018
According to the latest released European Patent Office (EPO) Annual Report 2018, EPO received 174,317 patent applications in 2018, an increase of 4.6% over the previous year.
By country of origin, China was the top fifth following the US (43,612 applications), Germany (26,734), Japan (22,615), and France (10,317) with 9,401 patent applications filed at EPO in 2018, reflecting the country's significant growth of 8.8% from 2017 and more than six-fold over the decade from 2008 to 2018.
Among the top 10 companies (as shown in the table below) by number of patent applications filed at EPO in 2018, Huawei from China occupied the second place with 2,485 applications.
|
Ranking
|
Company
|
No. of applications at EPO
|
|
1
|
Siemens
|
2,493
|
|
2
|
Huawei
|
2,485
|
|
3
|
Samsung
|
2,449
|
|
4
|
LG
|
2,376
|
|
5
|
United Technologies
|
1,983
|
|
6
|
Royal Philips
|
1,617
|
|
7
|
Qualcomm
|
1,593
|
|
8
|
Ericsson
|
1,472
|
|
9
|
General Electric
|
1,307
|
|
10
|
Robert Bosch
|
1,286
|
In terms of technology fields, medical technology, digital communication, and computer technology were the three most popular categories at EPO in 2018, and 20% of the European patent applications relating to digital communication during the year were from China. Apart from digital communication, computer technology; electrical machinery, apparatus, and energy; and telecommunications were also the most frequently featured technology fields in patent applications from China during the year.
In terms of patent grants, EPO published 127,625 granted patents in 2018 (up 20.8% from 2017), of which 4,831 patents, or a share of 4% of the total patents granted, were to applications from China, as compared with the shares of EPO member states, the US, Japan, and Korea of 45%, 24%, 17%, and 5% respectively.
