The Spanish inventors submitted 2,192 European patent requests last year, according to the Patent Index 2024, which was published on Tuesday before … European Patent Office (OEP). Companies and inventors all over the world recorded a total of 199,264 patents before OEP in 2024, in line with the previous year and after three years of great growth. Patent requests from Europe, which include 39 member states of the OEP, increased by 0.3 %, while those received from outside Europe decreased slightly (-0.4 %), according to the OEP note, which indicates that although Samsung was the largest patent request in 2024, the Supreme Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) was at the national level.
“Despite the political and economic uncertainty, European companies and inventors have requested more patents last year, indicating their technological ability and continuous investment in research and development,” said the president of OEP at António Campinos. «OEP data shows a clear road map of industrial priorities, policies and spoilers. With Draghhi and Letta reports, to survive all over the world, Europe must improve its ecosystem for innovation and help more inventors so that they can improve their inventions and marketing, especially in basic fields such as green technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and semi -conductors.
Spanish companies and inventors submitted other European requests by 3 % in 2024, and in the past decade, they recorded the largest increase in European annual requests among the most active countries in OEP (those with more than 2000 annual requests). Since 2015, the growth rate has reached 44 %, which reflects the commitment to innovation and technological development. This trend shows the efforts of companies, public research centers and Spanish businessmen to protect their inventions and competition in the European technological market.
Csic in the head
CSIC is still the main applicant for patent from Spain in OEP. In 2024, universities and public research centers were submitted with the largest number of patent requests that were submitted together more than 100 requests. Among the private companies, Amadeus stood as a company with the largest number of requests, submitting 43 requests for European patents, followed by the Technalia Research & Innovation Foundation (24) and Telefónica (21).
Other distinguished companies are Autotech Engineering (21 applications), two new arrangements in the arrangement, power generation solutions in Madrid (19), which develop internal combustion engines for low emissions and mixed systems, and the automotive ficosa resource (17).
For Spain, the technological field that contains the largest number of patent applications in Europe (221) was the pharmacy again, with an increase of 11.6 % compared to 2023. Medical technology and biotechnology share second place, with a total of 163 patents for each of them, which reflects annual growth by 14 % and 8.7 %, respectively. The Biociencias sector, which includes the three mentioned fields, continues to represent nearly a quarter of European patents from Spain.
The transportation sector, which includes cars, recorded the largest growth in Spanish inventions in 2024, an increase of 30.7 % compared to the previous year, which guarantees fourth place, with a total of 149 requests.
On the other hand, the machines, devices and the electricity sector – which include inventions related to clean energy technologies such as batteries – occupied in fifth place, with 134 patent applications, which represent a 13 % decrease.
Noticeable growth for the Basque country
Of all independent societies, Catalonia continued to lead the regional ranking, with 724 requests in OEP in 2024. Although it witnessed a slight -1 % decrease compared to the previous year, it represents 33 % of the total. The Madrid community followed with 413 demands and general growth by 2.2 %.
The panels, Catalonia and Madrid, offered more than half of the Spanish patents in OEP. The Basque Basque ranked third with 326 requests, with marked growth of 24.4 % compared to the previous year. In fact, the Basque University (UPV) is located in the top ten of the applicants in Spain. The large increase in EXTREMADURA (300 % more) and Kanabartia (140 %) is striking, although both societies started with very low numbers and in 2024 they recorded 4 and 12 patent requests, respectively.
Catalonia maintains its fixed position in innovation, as it occupies the number 18 among the European Union regions in European patent applications. Specifically, the sector that contains the largest number of patent applications was the pharmacist, followed by medical technology and biotechnology. In Madrid, the pharmaceutical sector also stood on its head, but the transportation ranked second, followed by biotechnology.
In the Basque country, most applications came from machines, devices and the electricity sector, with transportation in second place and civil engineering in third place. These numbers reflect the industrial and scientific specializations for each region, and highlighting their strengths in the various areas of innovation.
By cities, Barcelona led the Spanish standings in 2024, with 331 European patents compared to 244 in Madrid. Both cities are among the 50 European cities with the largest number of European patent applications.
Women’s inventions
Spain, as a European country, has stood with the highest percentage of inventive women assigned to patent requests submitted to OEP (among the main European countries that request patents, that is, with more than 2000 requests per year). Specifically, 42 % of European patent applications in Spain in 2024 included at least an invented woman, with a much higher percentage than that in Belgium (32 %), France (31 %) and the average member states 39 of OEP (25 %).
The United States has maintained its location as a country of European patent works, followed by Germany, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea. OEP member states represented 43 % of European requests in 2024, while 57 % came outside Europe. Spain occupies the fifteenth place, among the highest 20.
It should be noted that the Republic of Korea recorded the largest growth between the ten main countries required (+4.2 %). China’s growth slowed, although a 0.5 % increase was made, while American companies and inventors (-0.8 %) and Japan (-2.4 %) have submitted lower requests in 2024.
Throughout the world, Samsung was the greatest patent request in OEP in 2024 (after leading the ranking for the last time in 2020), while Huawei went to second place, followed by LG, Qualcomm and RTX. It includes the 10 best European companies, two from South Korea, two from the United States, one from China and one from Japan.
