Patent applicants and patent applications; by sic93 of applicant

This table gives an overview of the number of patent applicants and patent applications at the European Patent Office (EPO) and NL Patent Office, a division of NL Agency (NLOC). Patents can be granted to enterprises, universities, institutions, private persons or other entities as long as the invention which they cover fulfils certain criteria. To obtain a patent the invention must be novel, contain an inventive step and be industrially applicable. This is assessed by a patent office like the EPO or NLOC. The patent office will grant or reject the application.

The data are broken down by economic activity of the enterprise applying for a patent. For the classification by economic activity the Dutch Standard Industrial Classification (SIC93) is used. The data give an indication which branches are (most) innovative.

Data available from: 2000.

Changed as of: 18 April 2013
Due to a calculation error the number of patent applications at the EPO of the industry C Mining and quarrying was not correct in 2007. This has been corrected in this version (was 64, now 113). This table is stopped due to the switch to the Standard Industrial Classification 2008 (SIC 2008).

Status of the figures:
Data are final for 2000 to 2008.

When will new figures be published?
This table has been stopped as of 18 April 2013 and is continued as Patent applicants and patent applications by SIC 2008.