Last year, Switzerland registered more patents with the European Patent Office (EPO) than ever before. With 9,410 applications, it ranks seventh in the world. In terms of the number of inhabitants, it even takes first place.
Patent applications from Switzerland increased by 2.7 percent compared to the previous year. This is an “above-average increase,” said the EPO. Switzerland was in seventh place worldwide and third in Europe.
With 1,085 registrations per million inhabitants, it also had the highest density of innovation in the world. That is more than twice as many patent applications per capita as second-placed Sweden. This value is considered “an important indicator of a country’s innovative strength”.
The Swiss applications came from a large number of companies from a wide range of sectors, the EPO said at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. This is a sign that Switzerland has a “broadly diversified technology portfolio” that is “supported by an advantageous mix” of leading global companies, innovative SMEs and strongly research-oriented universities.
In 2023, the highest number of Swiss patent applications were received from medical technology. With 1,010 registrations, they accounted for more than one in ten entries. This was followed by consumer goods with almost 1,000 registrations and measurement technology with almost 800. Registrations from the transport, automotive, chemical and electrical engineering sectors also increased.
Over 4,000 patents received – 40 percent more than last year
Open box Close box
Legend: Finesse work applies here: A start-up in Dübendorf (ZH) is tinkering with a drone motor. KEYSTONE/Anthony Anex
According to the EPA, the testing procedures take between three and four years. Only around half of the applications submitted subsequently receive a European patent. Last year, the EPO granted 4,161 patents to Swiss companies. That is 40 percent more than in the previous year.
Last year, the EPO calculated the contribution of women to innovation for the first time: According to this, at least one female inventor was named in 29 percent of all Swiss patent applications. That is more than the European average, but far less than the proportion of women in Spain (46 percent), France (33 percent) or Belgium (32 percent).
A geographical analysis also shows that almost half of all Swiss registrations came from five cantons: The canton of Zurich came first with 1,307 registrations, followed by the canton of Vaud with 1,193, Basel-Stadt with 1,033, Zug with 996 and Geneva with 921.
Hoffmann-La Roche is a leader in biotechnology
As was the case last year, the Swiss company with the most registered patents was the Basel pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche. It submitted 754 applications, ranking it 22nd in the world. According to the EPA, the company is a world leader in biotechnology and ranked third in pharmaceuticals, just behind US companies Merck and the University of California.
The tobacco company Japan Tobacco International achieved second place in Switzerland and 23rd worldwide with 706 registrations. This was followed by the tobacco company Philipp Morris (527), the technology group ABB (488) and the food company Nestlé (443). All of these companies recorded an increase compared to the previous year. In measurement technology, the Swatch Group took fourth place worldwide with 233 registrations.
199,275 patents were registered worldwide last year, 2.9 percent more than in the previous year. It was said that the positive trend from 2021 and 2022 continued. Patent applications are an “important early indicator of companies’ investments in research and development”. They also supported the marketing of inventions.
Huawei top worldwide
Open box Close box
At the top of the list of countries of origin and even ahead of Switzerland were the USA, Germany, Japan, China, the Republic of Korea and France. The Chinese tech company Huawei filed the most patent applications (5,071), followed by the South Korean tech giants Samsung (4,760) and LG (3,498).