Boom in battery technology
German companies register fewer patents
03/28/2023, 04:30 am
When it comes to applications for European patents, Germany is in second place behind the USA – for now. Corporations from China are already hot on their heels for Siemens, BASF and Co. Huawei makes representations to the patent office in Munich particularly frequently.
The energy revolution and digital technology stimulate the spirit of invention. This is reflected in the number of patent applications published by the European Patent Office (EPO) in Munich. Overall, the number of registrations with the authority last year rose by 2.5 percent to a record 193,460.
EPO President Antonio Campinos said more applications for patent protection were being filed, especially for clean energy technology and other processes for generating, distributing and storing electricity. “The ongoing upswing in this area is helping to advance the energy transition.”
The EPA reported that there was a real boom in battery technology in particular, with an increase of 48 percent. The segment called “Electrical Machinery/Equipment/Energy,” which captures these technologies, grew 18 percent. However, the largest number of applications last year came from the field of digital communication, in which 16,705 patents alone were filed, eleven percent more than a year earlier. In contrast, applications stagnated in fields such as mechanical engineering and vehicle technology.
Huawei on the rise
Fewer patent applications came from Germany in 2022: 24,684, which is a drop of almost five percent. Nevertheless, the most applications worldwide came from the USA, from where almost a quarter of all patents filed come with 48,088 entries. However, China is also on the rise here: patent applications from there have more than doubled since 2018, and in 2022 alone they increased by 15 percent.
The world’s most eager patent applicant also came from China for the second year in a row: the controversial telecom supplier Huawei. It was followed by the Korean LG, ahead of the US chip company Qualcomm, which moved up from seventh to third place, overtaking Siemens. The Munich-based technology group registered 1,735 patents with the EPA last year. BASF follows in eighth place with 1401, Bosch is eleventh with 1214 registrations.
The European Patent Office is a separate organization independent of the European Union. Almost every country on the continent has joined. Only Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have regulated their patent protection independently.