Despite the health crisis and rising energy prices, innovation has held up. Patent filings by French companies increased by 12% between 2019 and 2023, according to a study by the Institute of Industrial Property published in early November.
These filings reached nearly 194,000 patents in 2023, compared to 174,000 in 2019. While the share of large companies in all patents filed remained stable over the period (around 60%), SMEs saw the increase significantly, to 19% in 2023, compared to 17.7% in 2019. This growth in patent applications would be driven by the support of the State to SMEs and ETIs, according to the study, which cites pell-mell the Deeptech and France 2030 plans as well as the Nation ETI strategy and the ETIncelles program.
These patent filings are, however, driven by a small elite group: only 2,000 of the 160,000 French SMEs apply for the patent each year. They are mainly specialized in medical, deeptech, chemistry, mechanics and aeronautics and spend around 50% of the equivalent of their turnover on R&D, compared to 9% for all French SMEs (excluding microenterprises).
You are reading an article from L’Usine Nouvelle 3737 – December 2024
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Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
