The 2018 annual report of the European Patent Office (EPO) shows a 4.6% increase in the number of European patent applications, reaching 174,000 applications.
This growth can mainly be attributed to applications by European companies, but an increase can also be seen throughout the world. Most of the patent applications came from the USA, followed by Germany, Japan, France and China. Dutch companies submitted no fewer than 7,140 European patent applications in 2018. This is an increase of 1.4% compared to 2017.
