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Mar 22, 2023 · Aidan Kendrick, EPO Chief Business Analyst. Patent applications to the European Patent Office in 2022 were up 2.5%, at well over 193 000 - a new record. This modest increase was reassuring when we consider the ongoing challenges in many industry sectors and countries last year. Patent applications from European companies are at the same level ...
- 1. Main points
- 2. Facts and figures: patents, trade marks, designs and hearings
- 3. Facts and figures: patent, trade mark, design and hearing data
- 4. Glossary
- 5. Data
- 6. Strengths and limitations
- 7. Related links
Applications
The number of patent applications to the IPO has increased by 3.4% between 2021 and 2022 to 19,486. Trade mark applications decreased by 19.2% to 158,821 applications in 2022. Design applications have also decreased by 6.7% from 72,157 applications in 2021 to 67,315 applications in 2022.
Registrations and grants
A record number of designs were registered in 2022 with 70,098 registrations, an 16.9% increase. Patent grants have decreased by 2.9% between 2021 and 2022. There has also been a decrease in the number of trade marks registered in 2022 with 163,104 registrations, a decrease of 3.5%.
International
For patents, trade marks and designs, the highest number of non-UK applications came from either China or the USA. The USA has the highest number of patent applications filed at the IPO by non-UK applicants, while China has the highest number of trade mark and design non-UK applicants.
Patents
Between 2021 and 2022, the number of patent applications [1] to the IPO increased by 3.4% (from 18,854 applications to 19,486), with the number of domestic applications (16,592 applications) increasing slightly by 0.6% and PCT applications (2,897 applications) increasing by 23.0%. While the number of patent applications has generally been lower in recent years, the same pattern has been seen in several of the larger patent applicant countries such as France, Germany, and Japan [2]. Trends in patent filing has been researched in greater detail in the changing profile of users of the UK patent system analysis. The number of patents published increased by 4.3% from 11,306 to 11,790 between 2021 and 2022. The overall number of patents granted decreased by 2.9% to 10,578 in the same time period. While the number of patents granted decreased, it is still the second highest annual number of grants at the IPO after 2021. The increase in the number grants in 2021 and 2022 is due to an internal IPO initiative to reduce the backlog of outstanding examinations. The number of domestic grants (7,255) decreased by 3.8% and PCT grants (3,323) decreased by 1.0%. Figure 1: Patent applications have increased in 2022. Source: Intellectual Property Office. Notes: [1] Patents filed directly at the IPO and Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications. [2] According to World Intellectual Property Organization IP statistics. The majority of applications to the IPO are from UK-based applicants. In 2022 there were 11,161 domestic applications from UK-based applicants, representing 57.3% of all applications received. The highest number of non-UK based applications came from the USA (3,047), China (863), and Japan (526). Green Channel patents The Green Channel for patent applications was introduced in 2009 and allows applicants to request accelerated processing of their patent application if the invention has an environmental benefit. The IPO received a record 496 requests in 2022 through the Green Channel; the previous record was in 2021 with 454 applications, which is an 9.3% increase. As of June 2023, there has been 221 published Green Channel requests which were published [1] in 2022 [2]. As the publication of a patent application usually takes place 18 months from the filing or priority date, the current number of published green channel requests is a provisional count and will likely increase. Figure 2: Green Channel requests continue to increase. Source: Intellectual Property Office. Notes: [1] According to Intellectual Property Office - Green Channel Patent Applications (ipo.gov.uk). [2] The application filing date may differ from the Green Channel patent request date.
Trade marks
In 2021, the IPO received a record 196,639 trade mark applications [1]. The number of trade mark applications in 2022 decreased by 19.2% compared to 2021. The significant increases seen since 2016 are believed to have been driven by three factors; a significant surge in applications from China, the COVID-19 pandemic and filings driven by the UK’s exit from the European Union. The first two reasons have seen the number of applications increase for the majority of IP offices globally [2], however the size of this increase is much smaller in these IP offices since the UK’s exit from the European Union which is an extra factor in increased mark filings for the IPO. Figure 3: Trade mark applications and registrations decrease from a record the previous year Source: Intellectual Property Office. Notes: [1] Domestic trade mark applications and International Registrations (excluding additional classes). [2] According to World Intellectual Property Organization IP statistics. In 2022, there were 79,978 trade mark applications sent directly to the IPO (domestic applications) from UK-based applicants (a decrease of 17.2% compared to 2021), and 44,142 direct applications to the IPO from non-UK-based applicants, which is a 34% decrease from 2021. In addition, there were 34,705 trade mark applications through the International Registration (IR) route, an increase of 6.3%. Much of the fall in trade mark applications is due to the trade mark applications sent directly to the IPO from international countries, and particularly European countries. For example, the highest filing rate increases between 2020 and 2021 were from European countries such as Italy, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Finland and Austria, with increases of between 708% and 437%. In contrast, between 2021 and 2022 applications from these countries saw decreases of between 48% and 75%. This may indicate that the surge in applications due to the UK’s exit from the European Union may be beginning to stabilise. The highest number of non-UK based applications (19,975 domestic and 1,856 IR) came from China with 21,831 applications followed by the USA with 18,158 applications (9,227 domestic and 8,931 IR). Both countries had a lower number of applications in 2022 than the previous year (a 28.4% decrease from China and a 13.5% decrease from the USA). The number of trade mark registrations has also decreased from a record high of 168,991 in 2021 to 163,104 in 2022, a decrease of 3.5%. However, this was the first year where the number of registrations were higher than the number of applications. This was a result of the surge in trade mark applications which increased the backlog of work for trade mark examiners. Registered trade marks provide protection within different classes of goods and services. For example, in the UK, the word ‘Polo’ is protected simultaneously by different applicants in relation to different goods: a type of mint, a clothing brand and a model of car. The total number of classes in all applications in 2022 was 356,989 (266,683 domestic and 90,306 IR), a decrease of 18.1% from 2021. Between 2011 and 2022, the number of trade mark applications and registrations each year has consistently risen. While in 2022 there was a decrease in both applications and registrations, the number of both remains the second highest since 2011.
Designs
Design applications to the IPO have seen a dramatic increase since 2015, with the number of applications growing 1114.9% between 2015 and 2021. The process of applying for registered design protection with the IPO has changed in recent years, with a new fee structure coming into force in October 2016 and an online application form in October 2017. These changes were intended to make the process more straightforward and cost-effective for applicants and are likely to have contributed to increased filing activity. As of May 2018, the UK became a member of the Hague Agreement for International Registrations. These figures, 14,973 international applications for 2022, are included within this publication, which accounts for a portion of the applications and registrations shown. Figure 4: Design registrations continue to increase Source: Intellectual Property Office. Notes: [1] Designs registrations includes the international Hague applications and registrations. This is a route for applying for designs through World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which the UK joined in 2018. This allows for a single international application filed with WIPO rather than a whole series of applications which would otherwise have to be filed with different national offices. For the first time since 2014, Designs applications have decreased by 6.7% between 2021 and 2022, from 72,157 to 67,315. 28,646 design applications to the IPO were from UK-based applicants which accounted for 42.6% of all design applications in 2022. The number of applications by UK-based applicants has increased by 2.1% between 2021 and 2022. Like trade marks, there has been a fall in applications by international (non-UK) applicants, with 38,669 applications in 2022, down 12.3% from 44,108 in 2021. Similar to 2021, over half of applications from international countries in 2022 were from either China or the USA (10,742 and 9,680 respectively) with the number of applications both countries decreasing by 18.3% and 3.9% respectively compared to 2021. Like trade marks, the number of registrations has overtaken the number of applications in designs in 2022. The number of registrations increased from 59,983 to 70,098 in 2022, an increase of 16.9%, much of this increase is again the surge in designs applications which increased the backlog of work for design examiners.
The full dataset which contains further breakdowns of these data is available to download here:
Dataset Released 28th July 2023
Patents
A patent protects inventions. It gives the right to take legal action against anyone who makes, uses, sells or imports it without the patent holder’s permission.
To be granted a patent, the invention must be all of the following: something that can be made or used, new, and inventive - not just a simple modification to something that already exists.
Patent cannot be granted for certain types of invention, including:
•literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works
•a way of doing business, playing a game or thinking
Data source
The statistics in this release are produced using administrative data from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), covering various aspects of IPO business. For patents, trade marks, and designs, snapshots of administrative databases for the calendar year 2022 were taken in April and May 2023. Data relating to hearings activity are provided directly by the relevant teams within the IPO. Due to the cessation of collection internally of some data points, certain tables and data points relating to Hearings have been removed from this publication.
Coverage
Patent protection in the UK can also be obtained from the European Patent Office (EPO). Prior to 2021, trade mark and design protection was also available through the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), this route is no longer available. Statistics relating to the EPO and the EUIPO are not covered in this publication and as such, the statistics in this publication do not represent all intellectual property activity in the UK. While all EPO applications are automatically designated to the UK, applicants have the option to specify otherwise. Statistics to the coverage of EPO patents to the UK may presently be inferred using data on fees (see table 2.5 in the data download) and using experimental statistics. Further research is required to ascertain the entire scope intellectual property activity in the UK.
It is important to note that the IPO’s data is collected for business purposes, not statistical purposes, and it is therefore subject to a number of limitations from a statistical perspective.
Intellectual property (IP) statistics should not be used alone to describe the level of innovation in the UK, or as a measure of inventorship. See the patent guide, or the trade mark guide for information on the limitations of using patents and trade marks as proxies for measuring innovation.
Accuracy of the statistics
Administrative data at the IPO are generated through receipt of forms to the office, which can be filed online or in paper format. To compile statistics on the three registered intellectual property rights (patents, trade marks and designs), data are extracted from the relevant databases. The extraction of data is not performed immediately at the close of the calendar year but is delayed allowing for any necessary retrospective amendments to be made in the databases. This ensures that the statistics presented in this release have a higher level of accuracy.
Name consistency
Applicants are free to write their name as they choose, which can lead to variation over multiple applications. For example, one individual may write “Limited” as part of the company name on whose behalf they are applying, while another individual may use the abbreviation “Ltd.” on a later application for the same company. We therefore use probabilistic matching to produce the “Top 50” and “Top 10” tables in this release, aiming to group all variations of a company name together.
Monthly statistics: Patents, trade marks and designs: April 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Official Statistics | Released 25th May 2023
The statistics in this release provide factual information relating to monthly applications and registrations of intellectual property registered rights (patents, trade marks, and designs)
Facts and figures: patents, trade marks, designs and hearings: 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Official Statistics | Released 20th July 2022
These statistics include annual data for designs, patents, trade marks and hearings for 2021, based on administrative data.
Trends at UK Intellectual Property Office 1995 to 2017
Feb 23, 2018 · 2022: Innovation stays strong. Patent filings at the EPO were up 2.5%, with digital and clean energy technologies the main drivers of growth. While digital communication continued to boom, as did biotechnology, innovation in batteries and semiconductors surged. Filings from P.R. China and the US saw the greatest absolute growth.
Feb 1, 2022 · Patent portfolios are increasing: The majority (69%) of patent portfolios have increased in the last 12 months, with the biggest increases in Japan (80%), Germany (77%) and Mainland China (76% ...
Published on. 28.03.2023. Category. About the EPO. Year. 2023. Patent Index 2022 provides a comprehensive overview of the figures representing recent activity in the global patent system. It also offers insights into emerging technology trends.
Mar 28, 2023 · Munich, 28 March 2023 – The European Patent Office (EPO) received 193 460 applications in 2022, an increase of 2.5% on the previous year and a new record. The EPO’s Patent Index 202 2, published today, shows that patent filings continued to grow last year, after an increase of 4.7% in 2021 that followed a small dip (-0.6%) in 2020.
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Jul 28, 2023 · Facts and figures: patents, trade marks, designs and hearings: 2022. The statistics in this report provides factual information relating to applications and registrations of intellectual property ...
