WWhilst the European Patent Office has recorded a record number of patent applications, the number from Germany is falling. Overall, the Munich-based office counted 193,460 applications last year, 2.5 percent more than in the previous year, as the EPO announced on Tuesday. Registrations from Germany fell 4.7 percent to 24,684 – the lowest level in more than a decade. Germany is still in second place behind the USA (48,088), but if the trend continues, that could change in a few years.
“The proportion of German patent applications at the EPO has fallen from 17.9 to 12.8 percent over the past ten years,” said EPO economist Ilja Rudyk. He sees a shift between the sectors as the reason for this. “There is particularly strong growth in digital areas. These do not play such a big role in patent applications from Germany,” he explained. “In contrast, patent applications are stagnating in the strong fields in Germany, such as mechanical engineering and automotive engineering.”
More than 19,000 applications from China
As a result, Germany could lose its second place in a few years to China, which is currently fourth behind Japan. “In 2013 there were 4,075 patent applications from China, last year there were 19,041,” said Rudyk. “In purely mathematical terms, if the trend continues, China could at least have caught up with Germany in three years.”
The largest patent applicant in terms of number also comes from China: Huawei increased by almost 1000 to 4505 applications – this is the undisputed first place. It is followed by LG (3510), Qualcomm, which almost doubled its registrations to 2966, and Samsung (2874).
The German number 1 Siemens follows in sixth place with 1735 patent applications. That’s 25 more than a year ago, but the Munich group still loses a place. Other German companies in the top 50 are BASF in 8th place with 1401, Bosch with 1214 (11th place), Siemens Energy with 601 (28) and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft with 453 patent applications in 47th place.
However, the sheer number of patent applications is not everything. “One of the reasons for the high number of patents for some top applicants may also be that this is about mobile phone patents for 5G and 6G,” said the head of the Siemens patent department, Beat Weibel. “These patents are typically licensed in pools, and the more a company brings in, the bigger their share of the royalties,” he explained. “Accordingly, it is worth registering as many and sometimes small patents there as possible. That is not in line with our approach.”
A comparison with the figures from the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) from the beginning of March also shows how different patent rankings can be. Bosch is the largest customer there with 3946 registrations, while Siemens does not play a major role. In the federal state ranking of the DPMA, Baden-Württemberg is at the top. At the EPA, the order is different: Bavaria is in the lead here. Baden-Württemberg comes in third place behind North Rhine-Westphalia.
Elsewhere, however, everyone agrees: the DPMA also registered a decline in German applications in 2022.