Patent applicants and applications; technology field (IPC)
Wat erin zit
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, according to the International Patent Classification (IPC). This does not necessarily have to be the same area in which the applicant is economically active (SIC).
If a patent application relates to multiple technology fields, it is counted in full for each separate technology field. Due to this method the total number of patents for the subcategories are usually higher than the overarching category to which they belong. For example, a patent application relating to subcategories A1 and A2 counts separately for both, but is only counted once under the overarching category ‘A Human necessities’. This method of counting provides insight into how many patent applications can actually be attributed to the individual technology fields and which technology fields occur more frequently within the overarching categories.
Data available from: 2011
Status of the figures:
The figures from 2011 to 2021 are final. The figures for 2022 are revised provisional. The figures for 2023 are provisional.
Changes as of August 3, 2026:
The figures for 2021 and 2022 have been adjusted and the provisional figures for 2023 have been added.
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