CIPA: EPO REVIEW
the period 2005–2014 show that the fastest growing of
“AT THE END OF 2013 (THE LAST DATE FOR WHICH DATA ARE MILLION APPLICATIONS WERE PENDING AT THE
dramatic growth pre-2008 is apparent for only a few technologies, such as in the electrical and electronic engineering sectors. A key change in fi ling practice is the route
of entry. Direct entry to the EPO has remained fairly steady over the last 15 years—around 60,000 applications per year—with a small fall in 2009 and a signifi cant rise in 2010, when the time limit for fi ling voluntary divisional applications expired. T e fi gures for 2014 were just under 60,000.
On the other hand, the number of applications fi led at the EPO by the PCT route hit a new high of just over 92,000. T is was a signifi cant increase of 10% from the 2008 level and more than double the level in 2000. More than ever before applicants are using the PCT to delay entry into the EPO, allowing time to evaluate their inventions and defer committing costs. ‘Medical technology’ had the highest
number of applications in 2014, at more than 11,000—7% of all applications fi led that year. However, the EPO fi gures available for
the top ten technical fi elds is
‘digital communication’, which has more than doubled in size, from 4,500 fi lings in 2005 to 10,000 in 2014, with impressive growth also from ‘electrical machinery,
apparatus and
energy’ and ‘medical technology’. T ese three areas alone accounted for more
than 20% of all EPO applications in 2014. Pharmaceuticals is the only top ten technical fi eld that has declined, from nearly 6,300 applications in 2005 to fewer than 5,300 in 2014, a fall of more than 16%. Nonetheless, the top ten technical areas make up more than 52% of all EPO applications in 2014.
Source of applications In all of the top ten technical fields, except for ‘computer technology’, the largest number of the patent applications came from applicants based in EPO member states. For ‘computer technology’ the US takes the lead (38%), with EPO member states second (30%) and Japan third (14%). In pharmaceuticals, 47% of the filings are from EPO states—an indication of the strength of the pharma industry in Europe. A feature of the patent filings over the last
15 years has been the growth of filings from South Korea, and China. Although these countries have shown tremendous growth (particularly China, which has gone from fewer than 200 applications in 2001 to more than 4,600 in 2014), filings are dominated by the applications originating from EPO contracting states (75,000), the US (36,400) and Japan (22,000). In 2014, these three groups made up nearly 88% of all filings at the EPO.
couple of years have the fi ling fi gures passed that year’s level (see Figure 1). In contrast, from 1999 (when only 89,000 applications were fi led at the EPO) to 2008, the annual growth rate was generally more than 4%, with total growth of over 60% during the ten-year period. In reality, the EPO has only just returned to the levels of fi ling last seen in 2008, and the
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World Intellectual Property Review Annual 2015
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Applications
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
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