2014 EPO Report: Biotechnology sees the biggest spike in patent applications

The European Patent Office’s Annual Filing Report has been released.

In 2014 EPO patent filings have increased by 3.1% with major growth in the Netherlands, the UK and France; up 9.1%, 4.8% and 4% respectively.

Over the past 5 years we have seen a year on year increase with the EPO responsible for 35% of all patent filings in 2014. 

Unsurprisingly, of the 274,174 filings EPO based Germany was responsible for 11%.

European based companies have also featured significantly in the list of top 10 patent applicants with Philips filing the second most applications behind Samsung.

In terms of specialism 2014 saw a decrease in applications for pharmaceuticals and organic fine chemistry with biotechnology the biggest grower with an additional 12.1% of patent applications.

For more information please visit the European Patent Office’s Website