EPO Filings Continue to Increase
This article was taken from the Venner Shipley Newsletter edition 20
In 2005, over 193,000 applications were filed at the European Patent Office. This represents an increase of around 7% on 2004. Current predictions also indicate that 200,000 applications will be filed in 2006.
The technical fields representing the highest level of patent filings were in medical technology (11.4% of the total), followed by electronic communications (10%) and data processing (6.7%). The biggest area of growth in 2005 was in vehicle technology (3.2%).
Of the 193,000 applications filed, the European patent validation procedure was initiated for around 128,000 applications.
The European Patent Office currently has a total staff of around 6000 and 3,600 of those are patent examiners.