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Patents: Germany ranks second

In 2021, the European Patent Office in Munich received more patent applications than ever before. Germany ranks second behind the USA.

05.04.2022
Patente: Deutschland auf Platz 2
© Siemens

Munich (dpa) - The European Patent Office (EPO) received more patent applications than ever before last year. As it announced on Tuesday, the EPO recorded 188,600 filings in total. That’s 4.5 percent up on the previous year. “This underlines the creativity and resilience of inventors in Europe and worldwide”, EPO President António Campinos said.

According to the figures, Germany submitted 25,969 applications, putting it in second place behind the US, which had 46,533. They are followed by Japan (21,681) and China (16,665). France, the second-placed EU country, registered 10,537.

In terms of companies with the highest number of filings, Siemens ranks fifth with 1,720 patent applications. If it had not been for the spin-off of Siemens Energy one and a half years ago, which alone accounted for 749 filings and ranks 21st, Siemens could even have come close to third place, mathematically speaking. Bosch came in tenth with 1,289 applications, ahead of BASF with 1,284.

The German applications came mainly from the areas of electrical machinery and transport with 2,103 and 2,020 applications respectively, and from measurement and medical technology with 1,562 and 1,426 filings. This means that the focus in Germany is somewhat different to worldwide, where digital communications, medical technology and computer technology lead the field.