Spain maintains the rate of filing of patent applications from the previous year, although it fell by a slight 1%. The 2022 financial year, with 1,925 requests before the European Patent Office (EPO), was close to the 2021 record, when 1,945 were registered. Catalonia maintains its position of Spanish leadership, which means that each one of every 3 patents applied for is Catalan, despite a significant drop of 7.4%. Instead, Madrid rises 9%.
The main director of communication and spokesman for the OEP, Luis Berenguer, observes that "Catalonia continues to have a fairly preponderant position in industrial matters, which is the economic sector most linked to patents" and adds that "this position is quite consolidated". The pharmaceutical sector is the locomotive of this innovation.
Berenguer points out that the decrease in patent applications in Catalonia “may be linked to the automotive sector. Seat is a great industry, but this sector is no longer applying for the patents that it used to apply for”. Vehicles add new technologies. Batteries, for example, are now in another classification.
Madrid represents the other side of the coin. With a 9% growth in applications, it allows it to reach a share in Spain of 21.3%. Next come the Basque Country, with growth of 13.3% and Valencia, which fell by 12.7%.
Spain is the tenth European country in patent applications, well below the weight of its economy, due to the predominance of the service sector, and especially tourism and commerce, which "are not intensive in terms of patents", indicates the spokesman from the European office.
By sector, the technological area with the most patent applications in Spain is pharmaceuticals, which together with the medical and biotechnology aspects account for more than 40% of all those filed. In industry, the sectors with the highest growth in patent applications in Spain are environmental technology (82.1%), information technology (35%) and measurement systems (31.7%). Electrical machinery, appliances and energy fell, with 12% less.
The 1% drop in the number of Spanish patents is, in the opinion of Luis Berenguer, “irrelevant. It is not significant". “We interpret it – he indicates – as a scenario of stability, of consolidation of the applications for European patents that come from Spain”. Public institutions, including universities, remain at the forefront of innovation, with 6 of the top 10 positions. The Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) continues to be, as in the last 20 years, the one that presents the most applications, with 99.
Across Europe, patent applications are up 2.5%, to a record near 200,000. “This means –says Berenguer– that the European technology market continues to be very interesting for companies from outside Europe and it can be seen when Huawei, Samsung and LG, among others, are on the list of top applicants”.
