Inquiries with Robert Al, head of business development, show that this decrease is also visible at TU/e. “If I look at last year's figures, we are also dealing with a decrease in patents. Now (2020), we are actually back at the level of 2017 and before that time.” Although he does not want to speak of a trend yet. “Perhaps 2019 and 2018 were outliers. And it is likely that this decrease is mainly due to Covid-19 and we will regain the upward trend when the Covid situation fades into the background later this year.”

With 6,375 patent applications, the Netherlands remained in the third place for the origin of patent applications among the 27 EU member states and is in eighth place worldwide - just like last year. Despite the pandemic, the total number of European patent applications in 2020 was almost at the same level as the previous year (decrease of 0.7%). The EPO received a total of 180,250 patent applications last year, slightly less than in 2019 (181,532).

Strong decline in biotechnology

The main technology sectors in the Netherlands with the most patent applications were medical technology (-9.2%), followed by electrical machines, appliances, energy (-1.3%) and computer technology (+0.3%). The strongest growth was seen in pharmaceuticals (+14.9%). The largest decreases were registered in macromolecular chemistry and polymers (-25.4%), optics (-15.8%) and transport (-14.9%).

Philips stays at the top

The development of patent applications in technical sectors is also well reflected in the ranking of Dutch companies. Royal Philips continued to be the most active applicant in the Netherlands with 1,419 European patent applications in 2020 (down 8% from the previous year), followed by Signify with 691 applications (+ 5.3%), DSM 348 (+1, 5%), Airbus 327 (-38.3%) and NXP 310 (-11.7%).

The province of Noord-Brabant remained the most important Dutch region in terms of patent applications, accounting for more than half of all Dutch applications (51.5%), but recorded a marked decrease (-12.6%) compared to the previous year. Despite this decrease, Noord-Brabant occupied 5th place in 2020 on the EPO list of all European regions. In the city rankings, Eindhoven leads with 2,495 patent applications (-6%), far ahead of Rotterdam with 381 patent applications (+16.5%) and Heerlen with 356 patent applications (+0.8%).

In terms of the ratio of patent applications to population size (indicative of a country's innovative strength), the Netherlands, with 369 patent applications per million inhabitants, remained in fourth place in the list of all countries that submitted patent applications to the EPO. Denmark, number three (410 patent applications per million inhabitants) and Sweden, number two (434 patent applications per million inhabitants) did slightly better. Switzerland clearly has the first place with 966 applications per million inhabitants.

Want to know more about this research? Then take a look at the EPO Patent Index.