According to the Polish Patent Office, Poles filed 671 applications with the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2023, which is over 10 % more than the year before. Most applications were received from the University of Zielona Góra, the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow and the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

The average growth of all applications to the European patent system was 2.9% despite the economic crisis. 199,275 applications were filed in 2023, compared to 193,627 the year before. This means that Polish filings are growing at almost four times the overall average.

In terms of growth rate, Poland is in seventh place among the members of the European Patent Organisation, this year ahead of only: Lithuania (+63.3% and 129 applications), Croatia (+59.4% and 51 applications), Slovenia (+24.4% and 153 applications), Cyprus (+23.3% and 53 applications), Slovakia (+16.7% and 56 applications) and Luxembourg (+11.9% and 385 applications). The European patent system is open to all countries in the world, so that globally Poland is overtaken, apart from the European countries mentioned, only by Singapore (+22.3% and 1 057 filings), South Korea (+21% and 12 575 filings) and New Zealand (+17.4% and 270 filings).

It is worth noting that Poland, although having the tenth highest year-on-year increase in filings worldwide this year, ranks 25th among all reporting countries. The first places are occupied by: United States (+0.4% and 48,155 filings), Germany (+1.4% and 24,966 filings), Japan (-0.3% and 21,520 filings), China (+8.8% and 20,735 filings) and South Korea (+21% and 12,575 filings).

On the other hand, in terms of European patent applications per million inhabitants, Poland ranks 30th in the world with 18 patents per 1 million. The global leaders are: Switzerland (1,085 applications per 1 million inhabitants), Sweden (495) and Denmark (445).

Adrian Andrzejewski