MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - While the European Patent Office is registering a record number of patent applications, the volume from Germany is falling. The Munich-based office counted a total of 193,460 applications last year, 2.5 percent more than the year before, the EPO said Tuesday. Applications from Germany fell by 4.7 percent to 24,684 - the lowest level in more than a decade. That still puts Germany in second place behind the U.S. (48,088), but if the trend continues, that could change in a few years.

"The share of German patent applications at the EPO has fallen from 17.9 to 12.8 percent over the past ten years," said EPO economist Ilja Rudyk. He sees a shift between industries as the cause. "There is particularly large growth in digital areas. These do not play such a large role in patent applications from Germany," he explained. "In contrast, patent applications are stagnating in fields that are strong in this country, such as mechanical engineering and automotive technology."

As a result, Germany could lose its second place in a few years to China, which currently ranks fourth behind Japan. "In 2013, there were 4075 patent applications from China, last year there were 19,041," Rudyk said. "In purely mathematical terms, if the trend continues, China could have at least caught up with Germany in three years."

The largest patent applicant by number of units also comes from China: Huawei increased by almost 1000 to 4505 applications - that is the undisputed first place. It is followed by LG (3510), Qualcomm, which almost doubled its applications to 2966, and Samsung (2874).

Germany's No. 1 Siemens follows in sixth place with 1735 patent applications. That is 25 more than a year ago, but the Munich-based group still loses one place. Other German groups in the top 50 are BASF in 8th place with 1401, Bosch with 1214 (11th place), Siemens Energy with 601 (28th) and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in 47th place with 453 patent applications.

However, the sheer number of patent applications is not everything. "One of the reasons for the high patent numbers for some of the top applicants may also be that we are talking about mobile patents for 5G and 6G," said Beat Weibel, head of Siemens' patent department. "These patents are usually licensed in pools, and the more a company brings in, the bigger its share of the royalties," he explained. "Accordingly, it pays there to apply for as many patents as possible, some of which are small. That's not in line with our approach."

A comparison with the figures from the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) from the beginning of March also shows how different patent rankings can be. There, Bosch is the largest customer with 3946 applications, while Siemens does not play a major role. In the DPMA's ranking of German states, Baden-Württemberg is in the lead. At the EPO, the order is different: Here, Bavaria has the lead. Baden Württemberg comes in third behind North Rhine-Westphalia.

Elsewhere, however, there is agreement: the DPMA also registered a decline in German applications in 2022./ruc/DP/zb