Despite increase in patent applications from Poland in 2022, fewer awarded patents
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In 2022, the number of European patent applications from Poland increased by almost 18 percent. This is over seven times higher than the total average of all applications. In Poland, universities and research institutes are still the most active when it comes to submitting inventions, the European Patent Office (EPO) reports.
According to the recently published EPO Patent Index 2022, the number of patent applications from Poland filed with the European Patent Office increased by 17.8 percent. Polish applicants filed 615 applications in 2022, compared to 522 a year earlier, the Patent Office of the Republic of Poland informed in a release.
Poland ranks second among EPO members in terms of growth rate, behind Malta, which recorded a 28.6 percent increase.
However, the European system is open to all countries of the world, hence globally Poland is behind Hong Kong (49.8 percent, 331 applications) and Brazil (20.9 percent, 220 applications).
Although in 2022, Poland has the fourth highest year-to-year increase in the number of applications, it ranks 25th among all reporting countries. In the lead are the United States (+2.9 percent, 48,088 applications), Germany (-4.7 percent, 24,684 applications), Japan (-0.4 percent, 21,576 applications) and China (+15.1 percent, 19,041 applications).
In terms of awarded patents (as opposed to filed applications) Poland’s situation is worse, recording a 21.7 percent decrease. In 2022, 188 European patents were granted compared to 240 a year earlier.
According to the EPO, in 2022, the largest number of applications from Poland were filed in the area of medical technologies (-12.7 percent, 55 applications), pharmaceuticals (+8.1 percent, 40 applications) and transport (+11.4 percent, 39 applications). The highest growth dynamics was recorded in biotechnology (+362.5 percent, 37 applications).
The report shows that 9 out of 10 largest Polish patent applicants are universities or research institutes.
There is only one company in the top ten - Polpharma. The leaders are the Jagiellonian University (20 applications), the AGH University of Science and Technology (18 applications) and the Silesian University of Technology (18 applications). In the following places are: the University of Warsaw (13 applications), Polpharma (11 applications), the Institute of High Pressure Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (10 applications), Łukasiewicz Research Network - Institute of Aviation (9 applications), the University of Gdańsk (9 applications), the Gdańsk University of Technology (8 applications) and the Częstochowa University of Technology (7 applications).
The European Patent Office also examines the level of innovation of regions. Polish regions are globally in distant, not ranked positions. The most patent active regions filing for European patents are: California (16,139), Tokyo (11,905) and Guangdong (9,442). Germany's Bavaria (7,084) is in fourth place.
Polish regions are listed only in the ranking of regions of the European Patent Organization. The Warsaw region is 83rd with 177 applications for European inventions, while 113 applications come from Małopolska and 62 from Silesia.
In total, in 2022, the European Patent Office received 193,460 applications, a 2.5 percent increase compared to the previous year and a new record.
The Polish Patent Office said: “The growing number of patent applications - an early indicator of companies' investment in research and development - shows that last year innovations remained at a solid level, despite the global economic crisis.” (PAP)
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