Despite the pandemic, the number of applications from Poland to the European Patent Office (EPO) is growing at the fastest rate in Europe. The Silesian University of Technology was ranked first in the list of Polish reporting institutions. 

According to the recently published Patent Index 2021, the number of patent applications filed by Polish enterprises, universities and research institutes increased by 12.8% last year. This is four times higher than a year ago and the second-highest growth rate in Europe – after Portugal. 

In Germany and France, the countries with the highest number of applications, the statistics remained almost unchanged (+0.3 and -0.7% respectively), while the United Kingdom recorded a slight decrease in this respect (-1.2%). In 2021 there was an increase in applications in several other European countries, including Sweden (+12%), Finland (+11.2%), Denmark (+9.2%), Spain (+8.9%), Italy (+ 6.5%), Switzerland (+3.9), Belgium (+3.3%) and the Netherlands (+3.1%). 

The leading area among applications from Poland is medical technologies (up from 2nd place) recorded an increase of 71.1%, compared to the previous year. The next places were taken by pharmaceutical products (+11.4%) and transport (including the automotive industry), where 8,1% more patent applications were submitted, compared to the year before. 

The largest number of patent applications from Poland came was submitted by the Silesian University of Technology which advanced from fourth place a year ago. The top ten include two other scientific institutions: AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków (6 applications) and the Institute of High-Pressure Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (5). 

Arkadiusz Słomczyński