The European Patent Office has counted a record number of new patent applications for the past year 2021. In total, there were 188,600 new application procedures, an increase of 4.5 % compared to the previous year. The top filers by country are the US (46,544) followed by Germany (25,969) and Japan (21,681).

EPO President António Campinos is pleased with the development. He said "this underlines the creativity and resilience of inventors in Europe and worldwide". EPO Chief Economist Yann Ménière added:" Research and development means long-term investments for companies that are not so affected by crises."

German applicants have a different focus in their filings than the majority of the other top countries. While German applicants are dominated by electrical machinery and transport, with a total of 4123 applications, other countries are filing more in the fields of digital communications, medical technology and computer technology.

The company with the most applications to the EPO are Huawei with 3544 and Samsung with 3439 applications. The company with the most applications from Germany is Siemens in 5th place with 1720 applications.

However, there are also warnings. In its recently published Global Innovation Index Report, WIPO also sees dangers due to new global challenges, despite a good recovery after a Covid-19-related decline0. According to the report, productivity is currently stagnating globally despite higher investments in research and development.