The most populous countries in the European Union, Germany and France are also in the top 10 countries with the most university patent applications per capita out of 35 countries ranked. In this list, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland are at the top, neck and neck.
Grenoble Alpes, leading European university in number of patent applications
The University of Grenoble Alpes, in Isère, is the leading European provider of patent applications to the EPO. The establishment has a total of 3,300 requests, ranking far ahead of its compatriots – Paris Cité and Sorbonne University, the second and third French universities, have respectively 1,900 and 1,800 requests generated.
Grenoble Alpes is also well ahead at European level. Second in the ranking, the Swiss university ETH Zürich has 2,200 patent applications, followed by the Swedish Lunds universitet (2,000 applications), i.e. more than 1,000 applications less than the Isère university.
France can also boast of a good dilution of its patent applications on its territory: France has 215 universities having generated at least one patent application – compared to 190 in Germany, second in the ranking.
A growing weight of European universities in patent applications
European universities weigh more and more heavily in total patent filings. In total, they represent more than 10% of all university patent applications filed with the EPO in 2019, compared to around 6% in 2000. France follows this trend: in 2020, 11% of French patent applicants European were universities.
In detail, two thirds of patent applications from universities were not submitted directly by them, but via companies. However, universities are gaining more weight in patent applications. They represented around 20% of university patent applications in 2000, compared to 45% in 2019.
Patents, however, are concentrated in the hands of a small group of universities. Only 5% of European universities are responsible for half of the patent applications in Europe. Furthermore, “there is still a lot to do to achieve a single market for research and technology in Europe: 10% of start-ups with European university patents are based in the United States,” emphasizes António Campinos, the President of the EPO, in a press release.
In terms of sectors, pharmaceuticals and biotechnologies account for almost half of the requests from universities, with 48,000 requests out of the 110,000 requests submitted. The energy and semiconductor sectors also occupy the top of the table, with 6,000 and 5,000 patent applications respectively.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
