The European Patent Office (EPO) has seen a record number of patent applications with 193,460 applications being filed last year, an increase of 2.5% from the previous year. However, Germany, the second-largest filer after the United States, has seen a 4.7% decrease in the number of applications filed, with just 24,684 registered patents. This is the lowest level in over a decade and could cause Germany to lose its second-place ranking to China within three years.
Ilja Rudyk, an economist at the EPO, attributes this decline to a sectoral shift. Rudyk states, “There is particularly strong growth in digital areas. These do not play such a big role in patent applications from Germany. On the other hand, patent applications are stagnating in the fields that are strong in Germany, such as mechanical engineering and vehicle technology.”
China, currently in fourth place, could bypass Germany in the ranking with the number of its patent applications increasing from 4,075 in 2013 to 19,041 in 2020. Huawei is the largest applicant with 4,505 registrations, followed by LG (3,510), Qualcomm (2,966), and Samsung (2,874).
Siemens, the largest filer in Germany, ranked sixth with 1,735 patent applications. Other companies that made the top 50 in the EPO ranking include BASF in eighth place with 1,401 patents, Bosch with 1,214 patents, Siemens Energy with 601 patents, and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft with 453 patent applications.
Beat Weibel, Head of the Siemens Patent Department, explains that one of the reasons for the high number of patents for some top applicants is that it deals with mobile phone patents for 5G and 6G. These patents are licensed in pools, and the more patents a company brings in, the larger their share of royalties. Therefore, it is worth registering as many patents as possible, including smaller ones. Nonetheless, this approach does not align with Siemens’ strategy.
Furthermore, a comparison between EPO and German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) figures shows a difference in patent rankings. Bosch is the largest applicant at the DPMA with 3,946 registrations, while Siemens plays a minor role. In the federal state ranking, Baden-Württemberg ranks first at the DPMA, while at the EPO, Bavaria comes out on top, followed by North Rhine-Westphalia, with Baden-Württemberg ranked third.
