Patents are on an upswing

[27/03/2019]

Patent filings set new records in 2018 with a 3.5% growth in PCT international applications (243 500) and a 4,6% growth (174 317) in EP European applications compared to 2017.

Among all countries, the United States filed the greatest number of EP patent applications (43 612) and PCT patent applications (56 624). European countries accounted for nearly half of all EP applications. And, Asia continues its spectacular growth, in particular, due to China and the Republic of Korea which are filing more and more patent applications.

The Chinese company, Huawei Technologies, is still the top international filer but is slightly outranked by Siemens in terms of EP applications. The technology fields conceiving the largest number of inventions are: medical technology, digital communication and computer technology.