The patent ranking is out – these countries and companies are leading.
Patent activity remained high in 2024, with nearly 200,000 patent applications filed with the European Patent Office, according to the organization.
The highest number of applications was filed in the field of computer technology. This was followed by the “electrical machinery, apparatus and energy” sector, which showed the strongest growth, driven primarily by clean energy technologies, including battery innovations. Digital communication ranked third, followed by medical technology and then the transport sector.
However, EU-based companies do not dominate in terms of patents filed: the top five consist of Far Eastern and American companies. The largest European player, Siemens, ranked sixth.
Ranking of the companies with the highest number of applications and the number of patent applications:
- Samsung (5,107)
- Huawei (4,322)
- LG (3,623)
- Qualcomm (3,015)
- RTX (2,061)
- Siemens (1,830)
The full list is available here.
Who files patents?
By type of organization, the majority of patent applications (71%) were filed by large companies, followed by SMEs and individual applicants (22%), and universities and research institutions (7%).
While the largest number of innovation applications is linked to the USA, the ranking among European countries was as follows:
- Germany (25,033 patent applications)
- France (10,980 patent applications)
- Netherlands (7,054 patent applications)
- Sweden (4,936 patent applications)
- Italy (4,853 patent applications)
The organization registered 139 patent applications from Hungary, placing the country between Greece (107 applications) and Slovenia (156 applications). Among Hungary’s immediate neighbors, Slovakia is listed with 62 applications and Romania with 63, while 2,146 patent applications were filed from Austria.
Last year, at least one female inventor was named in a quarter of European patent applications. Countries with the highest proportion of female innovators include Spain (42%), Belgium (32%), and France (31%).
The largest European player
As the largest European corporate player, Siemens filed 1,830 patents last year, a quarter of which related to machine learning and artificial intelligence. Nearly 16 percent of the employees of the Germany-based technology company work in research and development, on which the company spent EUR 6.3 billion last year. Employees reported approximately 5,300 innovations worldwide. Calculated on an annual basis – with 220 working days – this amounts to 24 innovations per day.
Siemens thus holds a total of 41,700 granted patents worldwide. The company’s solutions range from intelligent data analysis to digital twin simulations, contributing to more efficient and sustainable manufacturing, energy supply, mobility, and infrastructure.