Patent applicants and patent applications; technology field

This table gives an overview of the number of patent applicants and patent applications at the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Netherlands Patent Office (OCNL), a department of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). Patents can be granted to enterprises, universities, institutions, private persons or other entities as long as the invention which they cover fulfils certain criteria. To obtain a patent the invention must be novel, contain an inventive step and be industrially applicable. This is assessed by a patent office like the EPO or OCNL. The patent office will grant or reject the application.

The data are broken down by the technology field the invention relates to. This does not necessarily have to be the same area in which the applicant is economically active (SIC).

If an application can be classified as relating to two (or more) technology fields, each technology field is attributed a fraction of the application. If, for example, an application can be classified as relating to two technology fields, half of one application is allocated to each technology field. As a result the total number of patent applications remains equal.

Data available from: 2013

Status of the figures:
The figures from 2013 to 2018 are final. The figures for 2019 are revised provisional. The figures of 2020 are provisional.

Changes as of June 30, 2023:
The figures for 2018 and 2019 have been adjusted and the provisional figures for 2020 have been added.

Changes as of 10 February 2023:
Provisional figures about 2018 and 2019 have been updated.
Correction over the years 2013-2019. In addition to the semi-annual update of the StatLine table based on the 'PATSTAT autumn' dataset, there has also been a correction. Previously, a patent applicant was counted via the psn_id (the ID for standardised names within PATSTAT), with each psn_id representing a unique applicant. Further analysis of the microdata shows that some companies are nevertheless represented by multiple psn_id's, resulting in some companies being doubly counted as patent applicants. With this correction, the companies themselves are counted as applicants instead of the psn_ids, eliminating double counting. If the applicant can be linked to the business registry then the enterprise is counted as the applicant. In case the applicant cannot be linked, the psn_id will still be counted as the applicant. This correction covers all reference years and concerns a few dozen fewer patent applicants per year than before. Furthermore, the statistics are now rounded to multiples of five.

When will new figures be published?
End of 2023 the figures for 2019 and 2020 will be updated. Mid 2024 new figures for 2021 will be added.