In 2021 the European Patent Office (EPO) received a record 188,600 applications, representing a bounce back from a somewhat disappointing performance in 2020. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology applications increased in 2021, while the volume of applications in areas such as digital communications and medical technology saw nearly double-digit growth; semiconductor and...

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In 2021 the European Patent Office (EPO) received a record 188,600 applications, representing a bounce back from a somewhat disappointing performance in 2020. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology applications increased in 2021, while the volume of applications in areas such as digital communications and medical technology saw nearly double-digit growth; semiconductor and audio-visual technology filings made huge leaps of 21% and 24%, respectively. Chinese applicants were busier than ever, though notable growth also came from the United States, Canada and Sweden. Overall, the pandemic is not thought to have significantly impacted innovation, though it does appear to have negatively affected some EPO functions; for example, oppositions are taking longer to process, with the 15-month target proving difficult to meet. Notwithstanding that, as well as concerns around examination speed, time to grant and filing costs, the EPO was recently identified by IAM readers as the top performer out of the IP5 – a forum of the five largest IP offices in the world – earning praise from a majority of benchmarking survey participants for the quality of patents it issues.

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