Chinese Patent Filings at EPO Increase by 24% in 2021

According to the data from Patent Index 2021 published recently by the European Patent Office (EPO), the EPO received a record 188,600 patent applications in 2021, an annual increase of 4.5%, showing the rebound of patent filings at the EPO after a slight dip in 2020 (down 0.6%).

 

The top origin of applications at the EPO in 2021 was again the US (46,533 applications), accounting for 25% of all filings, followed by Germany (25,969), Japan (21,681), China (16,665), and France (10,537). And the top 5 applicants were Huawei (3,544), Samsung (3,439), LG (2,422), Ericsson (1,884), and Siemens (1,720).

 

The data of 2021 also pointed to the continued decline in the share of patent applications from Europe, falling from 50% of the total in 2013 to 44% in 2021, while more players outside Europe, especially those from Asia, have been seeking to protect their inventions on the European market.

 

Among the Asian applicants, applications from China quadrupled in the past decade, and increased by a notable 24% in 2021, the highest among the 30 leading patent-filing countries. Also, in 2021 China had six of its companies, including Huawei, Oppo, ZTE, Baidu, Xiaomi, and Tencent, listed among the top 50 European patent applicants.

 

In terms of technology field, digital communications was the field with the largest number of European patent applications in 2021, followed by medical technology and computer technology. Patent activity in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, up 6.9% and 6.6% respectively, also continued to boom, underlining high levels of innovation in vaccines and other areas of healthcare.