EPO stats show UK patent filers reverse two year decline
18 Apr 2023
UK companies recorded a stronger than expected rise in the number of European patent filings after two years of decline.
The latest European Patent Office (EPO) Patent Index Report 2022 reveals that British-based innovators filed a total of 5,697 applications on the continent.
This represents an increase of 1.9% over the previous 12 months of 2021. While the rise remains modest, it matches that of France and exceeds Germany’s, which dipped by 4.5%.
Partner and patent attorney at European intellectual property firm Withers & Rogers, Carl Barnfather commented that the UK showing exceeded expectations.
“While we expected to see an increase in European patent filings originating in the UK this time, the 1.9% increase is slightly stronger than expected bearing in mind the challenging conditions that many businesses are facing with high inflation and rising interest rates, which have added to cost of borrowing,” he explained.
“This is good news for the UK economy and demonstrates that following the deceleration in patent-filing activity seen during the pandemic, it’s full steam ahead for our domestic innovators once again.”
Coming off the back of the worldwide pandemic, the total number of EPO filings from all sources grew last year to record proportions which stand at 193,460 overall.
Barnfather added that the breadth of domestic innovation activity provided a positive outlook, particularly in areas including composite materials, digital technologies, clean energy, MedTech and drug development.
Said Barnfather: The UK Government’s plan to turn the UK into the next Silicon Valley is also very promising. However, more concrete incentives and support are needed for research programmes at every stage, from the earliest, seed-funded R&D activity, which typically spins out of UK universities.”
In Europe itself, strong performances came from Switzerland (up 5.9%) and the Netherlands (up 3.5%). Germany’s decline in filings were attributed to a variety of sectors including transport, electrical machinery/apparatus/energy as well as organic fine chemistry. Italy also recorded fewer applications year on year but its decline was smaller at 1.1%.
The strong showing by two smaller European economies showed there was no room for complacency over the UK performance, warned Barnfather.
“With a population of around 67 million in the UK, domestic innovators are only filing 84 European patent applications per million inhabitants, which is far fewer than most other developed nations in Europe and beyond. Switzerland, at number one spot here, achieves over 1000 patent filings at the EPO per million population whereas the UK languishes in 17th position.
And compared to the EPO’s leading filer, the USA (up 2.9%), “cultural blocks” in some fields of tech created a lack of commercial rights ownership in the UK, he added.
“Without greater prioritisation of IP, the full economic potential of UK-based research activity could be lost.”
Top UK company filers
Unilever 486
British American Tobacco 287
Linde 201
Rolls-Royce 197
BAE Systems 188
British Telecommunications 125
GlaxoSmithKline 98
Top performing countries’ YoY increases
China 15.1%
South Korea 10%
Pic: 2018 Dyson Award winners Nicolas Orellana and Yaseen Noorani
