MADRID, 28 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Spain has ranked tenth among the countries of the European Union (EU) in terms of European patent applications, according to the '2022 Patent Index' of the European Patent Office (OEP), which details that companies and Spanish inventors submitted 1,925 applications in 2022, standing above the 1,885 registered in 2019, before the pandemic.

Specifically, the number of applications in 2022 is the second "highest in history" and has remained "quite stable" despite decreasing 1% compared to the 1,945 recorded in 2021, according to the OEP report.

One in four applications in Spain was related to health technologies, since the pharmaceutical sector was the technological field that registered the most patent applications.

Likewise, medical technology and biotechnology rose to second and third place, increasing applications by 11% and 9.3% compared to 2021, respectively.

Among the industries in which patent applications from Spain have grown the most, although with a smaller share, are environmental technology (82.1%), information technology (35%) and measurement systems (31.7%). %).

As the index details, the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) was once again the main applicant for Spanish patents at the EPO.

By communities, Catalonia registered the highest share of patent applications at the EPO in 2022, with 31.4%, followed by Madrid (21.3%) and the Basque Country (13.3%).

For its part, in global terms, this study shows that the EPO received a total of 193,460 applications in 2022, which represents an increase of 2.5% compared to the previous year, with the United States, Germany, Japan, China and France to the head.