March 19 Reuters The European Patent Office EPO received a record number of patent applications last year, with the biggest share of fillings coming from the United States, Germany, Japan and China, the office39;s register showed on Tuesday.

The office said it received 199,275 applications in 2023, 2.9 more than a year ago.

China39;s Huawei HWT.UL filled the largest number of applications for the third year in a row, followed by Samsung, LG, Qualcomm, Ericsson, and Siemens.

Patent applications are seen as an early indication of how much firms have been spending on research and development.

This underlines both the attractiveness of the European technology market and the high quality of our products and services, EPO President Antonio Campinos said in a statement.

Applications from small and mediumsized enterprises have reached the highest level to date, he added.

Reporting by Christian Kraemer, writing by Andrey Sychev, editing by Rachel More

Source Reuters