European Patent Applications from the UK in 2024

European Patent Office, Munich

Author Carsten Steger  Licence  CC BY-SA 4.0   Source  Wikimedia Commons

 

Jane Lambert

The European Patent Office ("EPO") is the fifth-largest patent office in the world.   The other four are the China National Intellectual Property Administration, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Japan Patent Office and the Korea Intellectual Property Office.  The EPO grants patents for the territories of its contracting parties on behalf of their governments.  The United Kingdom is one of those parties.  A patent granted by the EPO designating the UK (known as a "European patent (UK)") is treated as equivalent to a patent granted by the Intellectual Property Office in Newport for all practical purposes.

According to EPO figures published earlier this year, there were 6,076 applications from the United Kingdom in 2024.  That was an increase of 3.1% over the previous year, and it placed this country 9th in the list of countries of origin for European patent applications.   The countries ahead of us were the United States with 47,787 European patent applications, Germany with 25,033, Japan with 21,062, China with 20,081, South Korea with 13,107,  France with 10,980, Switzerland with 9,966 and the Netherlands with 7,054.  Immediately behind the UK was Sweden with 4,936 applications.  Italy was 11th with 4,853, and Spain was 15th with 2,192.  In the top 10 countries of origin, only South Korea and Switzerland exceeded the UK's percentage increase in European patent applications, though Hong Kong and Norway, which are further down the list, saw double-digit percentage increases.

Britain's 3.1% uptick is less impressive when the number of European patent applications per country is compared to its population.   Switzerland produced  1,112.8 applications per million inhabitants.   It was followed by Sweden with 467.79, Finland with 428.28 and Denmark with 425.92. With 87,88 applications per million this country came 18th in the list which is surprising for the country that pioneered the industrial revolution and has some of the finest universities in the world.

The following graphic shows the filed for which applications from the UK were filed in 2024.

Comsumer goods came top followed by computers, med-tech and biotech.   The top 10 applicants were as follows:

British American Tobacco Plc	636
Unilever Plc	613
Rolls-Royce Plc	254
BAE Syestems Plc	184
British Telecommincations Plc	175
Linde P;c	173
Imperial Brands Plc	140
AstraZeneca Plc	121
Shell Plc	116
Johnson Matthey Inc.	105

One of the reasons why the UK has underperformed its competitors in patenting was thought to be the risk and costs of IP enforcement.   The Arnold reforms which I discussed in New Patents County Court Rules on 31 Oct 2010 NIPC Law were intended to be an answer to that problem.  It seems to be taking a long time for news that IP enforcement need not be ruinously risky and expensive to filter down to industry.

Small and medium enterprises can protect themselves against such risk and cost by taking out IP insurance cover.  The Intellectual Ptoperty Office has published useful Guidance on Intellectual Property Insurance and the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys maintains a comprehensive list of brokers, underwriters and insurers on its website.

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