Patent applicants and applications; Sic 2008 and company size

This table gives an overview of the number of patent applicants and patent applications at the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Netherlands Patent Office (OCNL), a department of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). Patents can be granted to enterprises, universities, institutions, private persons or other entities as long as the invention which they cover Fulfils certain criteria. To obtain a patent the invention must be novel, contain an inventive step and be industrially applicable. This is assessed by a patent office like the EPO or OCNL. The patent office will grant or reject the application. The data are broken down by economic activity of the enterprise applying for a patent. For the classification by economic activity the Dutch Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2008) is used. The data give an indication which branches are (most) innovative. Additionally, a breakdown by enterprise size class is available. Data available from: 2013 Status of the figures: The figures in this table are definitive for the years 2013-2017. For 2018 the figure is revised provisional. For 2019 the figure is provisional. Changes as of 18 July 2022: None, this is a new table. When will new figures be published? Mid 2023 new figures about 2020 will be published.