Measured by the number of new patent applications filed with the European Patent Office (EPO) per million inhabitants, Switzerland is once again the absolute leader with 1,031 applications in 2022. Sweden (482), Denmark (453), the Netherlands (387) and Finland (386) follow far behind.
World Class Innovation
Sika made a significant contribution to this result, which undoubtedly underscores Switzerland's innovative strength in international comparison. According to the European Patent Office (EPO) statistics, Sika has achieved position 9 thanks to the consistent recording of new inventions within the entire organization and a targeted filing strategy.
Intellectual Property as Success Factor
A total of 193,460 new patent applications were filed with the EPO. This exceeded the previous year's figure by 2.5 percent. According to EPO President António Campinos, the growth in applications is "linked to clean technologies and other means of generating, transmitting and storing electricity". But digital technologies and the boom in batterytechnologies also played a role.
Further information on the number of applications and top applicants is available in the EPO Patent Index 2022.
In 2022, Sika filed a total of 168 new inventions (previous year: 150) and 104 new patent applications (previous year: 99). By the end of 2022, Sika's patent portfolio comprised 1,302 unique patent families with 4,493 individual national patents.
Over the past five years, Sika has consistently ranked among the top 10 Swiss companies that filed patents with the EPO.
The largest applicants to the EPO from Switzerland in 2022 (source: EPO Patent Index 2022). | ||
1. Hoffmann-La Roche | 11. Novartis | 21. Bobst Group |
2. JT International | 12. TE Connectivity | 22. INEOS Group |
3. Philip Morris International | 13. Endress + Hauser | 23. Dormakaba |
4. ABB | 14. ETH Zurich | 24. Lonza Group |
5. Nestle | 15. NChain Licensing | 25. Wonderland Switzerland |
6. The Swatch Group | 16. SHL Medical | 26. Novocure |
7. Tetra Laval Group | 17. Liebherr | 27. Maschinenfabrik Rieter |
8. Inventio | 18. EPFL Lausanne | 28. Givaudan |
9. Sika Technology | 19. Clariant | 29. Medmix Switzerland |
10. Firmenich | 20. Universität Zurich | 30. Omya International |