Inventive strength shines in torrent of patent filings

Chinese companies filed record-breaking patent applications in 2024 at the European Patent Office, or EPO, demonstrating strong innovation in fields such as computing, communications and battery technologies, a report shows.

According to the Patent Index 2024 published by EPO on Tuesday, companies and researchers from the Chinese mainland filed 20,081 applications last year, accounting for 10.1 percent of the total applications the office received.

Patent applications from the Chinese mainland have grown consistently over the past decade, with applications from China more than quadrupling since 2014.

"Despite political and economic uncertainties, companies and inventors from around the world filed a high number of patents last year, underlining their technological prowess and their continued investment in R&D," said EPO President Antonio Campinos.

The report said Chinese companies and researchers have seen a strong increase in three leading technical fields, including computer technology, battery-related energy and digital communication, which also mirrored the global trends.

The strongest growth in Chinese companies was in the category of electrical machinery, apparatus and energy, which increased by 32.2 percent year-on-year.

"The EPO's patent data is a clear roadmap for industry, policy, and investment priorities — tracking global innovation trends and offering insights into European patent application activity across industries and regions," Campinos said.

According to EPO, patent fillings for computer technology — which includes artificial intelligence, machine learning, and pattern recognition — led all categories for the first time with 16,815 patent applications at the EPO last year. Electrical machinery, apparatus and energy also posted strong growth, driven by advances in clean energy technologies, particularly battery innovation.

As more Chinese electrical vehicle brands have been entering European markets, there has been a 79-percent surge in Chinese companies' patent applications in battery-related technologies. Four Chinese companies are now among the top 15 applicants in battery technologies: CATL, Eve Energy, BYD and Zhuhai CosMX Battery.

In terms of the overall number of patent filings at the EPO, ranked by companies, the leading Chinese company was Huawei, which filed 4,322 applications and stood second in 2024 behind Samsung, followed by LG, Qualcomm and RTX.

Five other Chinese companies-CATL, ZTE, Xiaomi, Vivo Mobile and Tencent — ranked among the top 50 applicants at the EPO, showcasing China's robust innovation capabilities and active participation in European patent applications.

In addition, Chinese patent proprietors have shown interest in filing the unitary patent, which offers innovators simpler and more accessible patent protection across up to 18 EU member states with a single request.

Launched in 2023 by EPO, the unitary patent system has since gained popularity among Chinese patent proprietors, with 17.9 percent of all granted requests from the Chinese mainland coming in through that system.