EPO Filings Up 10% in 2010
In this short-but-sweet news release, the EPO has announced:
The EPO received 232,000 European patent filings in 2010, 10% up on the 2009 figure (211,000). 39% of these filings originated from the 38 member states of the European Patent Organisation, 26% from the US, 18% from Japan and 5% from each of South Korea and China.Compared to the US,
In 2010, the EPO granted 58,100 patents, 11% more than in 2009 (52,400).
"These figures clearly indicate that demand for patent protection is on the rise again, after the economic downturn of the previous two years", says EPO President Benoît Battistelli.
The EPO expects a further increase for the current year.
EPO Filings = 232,000, up 10%
US Filings = not published yet
EPO Grants = 58,100, up 11%
US Grants = 291,614, up 31%
This trend follows the trends being reported by other patent offices, although the "mere" 11% uptick in patent grants appears to lag behind others, such as the USPTO and SIPO. Of course, the EPO hasn't published the full report yet, so stay tuned . . .
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I hate to rain on the party but: Is this related to the Oct. 2010 deadline to file divisionals in the EPO? Or are these stats for NEW filings?
Striking is how many more filings there were at the EPO than grants. So, is the EPO backlog growing, or do filings include PCT Requests filed in 2010. They all get straightaway an EPO filing number from the EPO computer, yet many of them do not progress beyond the international phase.
I don't know how striking that actually is MaxDrei - the relative cost to file initially is a small trade off for the quality of the search report and the length of time that is required prior to the commit point.
The global economy seems to be getting back on track - and compared to 2009, everything is an improvement (from a patent attorney perspective ;-).
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