EPO published record number of patents last year
2016 was rather productive for the European Patent Office with 96 000 granted patents published — 40% more than in the previous two years. Patent filings also increased by 6.2%. Almost half of the applications filed originated in the European countries. The countries of origin with the highest numbers of applications were Germany, France and Switzerland. Belgium and Italy, on the other hand, showed the strongest growth. In terms of patent applications filed, nine out of ten largest technology sectors were covered, the patents being evenly distributed between the sectors. For example, the spheres of transport, medicine, IT and organic chemistry were represented among the applications.
Source: www.epo.org
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