Patents from British applicants saw the third-highest growth globally (+3.1%) and the second-highest in Europe among the top 10 countries at the European Patent Office (EPO) in 2024, trailing behind only the Republic of Korea (+4.2%) and Switzerland (+3.2%).
According to the EPO’s latest Patent Index 2024, published today, the UK ranked 9th with a total of 6,076 patent applications. This demonstrates the strong presence of UK companies and research institutions in the European technology market. Overall, a total of 199,264 patent applications were filed at the EPO last year from around the world. This high level of patenting activity is comparable to the previous year (2023: 199,452), following three years of significant growth.
“Despite political and economic uncertainties, European companies and inventors filed more patents last year, underlining their technological prowess and their continued investment in R&D,” said EPO President António Campinos. “The EPO’s patent data is a clear roadmap for industry, policy, and investment priorities. As the Draghi and Letta reports warn, to stay competitive globally, Europe must enhance its innovation ecosystem and do more to help inventors scale up and commercialise their inventions, especially in critical areas such as green technologies, AI and semiconductors.”
Other consumer goods patent fillings are on the rise in the UK
UK innovators’ patent filings reflect significant strengths in various high-growth industries. The top 5 fields of technology for patent applications from the UK at the EPO in 2024 are:
- Other consumer goods: saw 752 applications, growing by 71.7% compared to 2023, largely due to an increase in patents related to vaping technologies.
- Computer technology: 579 applications, marking a 12.4% increase.
- Medical technology: 431 applications, emphasising continued investment in healthcare solutions.
- Biotechnology, which has important applications in medicine, industry and agriculture, remained strong with 344 applications.
- Transport: 343 applications, covering innovation in the automotive, aerospace, and rail sectors.
Overall at the EPO, computer technology was the leading technical field for the first time in 2024, boosted by strong growth in AI-related fields(average annual growth rate of +28% since 2019). Electrical machinery, apparatus, and energy posted the strongest growth last year (+8.9% in 2023), driven by advances in clean energy technologies, particularly battery innovation (+24.0%). Meanwhile, digital communication, which encompasses inventions related to mobile networks, saw a 6.3% decrease.
British American Tobacco becomes No.1 UK patent applicant at the EPO
UK company British American Tobacco saw the biggest growth among the EPO Top 50 in 2024 and emerged as the leading UK applicant, filing 636 applications and surpassing Unilever (613 applications), which had dominated in recent years. The company filed most of its applications in the field of other consumer goods, which includes vaping technologies. (See graph: Top UK applicants at the EPO in 2024).
Despite not coming in at the overall top place, Unilever leads as the EPO’s top applicant globally in organic fine chemistry, ahead of companies such as L’Oréal (136 applications) and Wella (25 applications). Rolls-Royce also remained a significant player with 254 applications. There were also two universities among the UK’s top 20 applicants in 2024, Oxford University and the University of Cambridge, both of which featured in the EPO’s overall ranking of European universities by patent applications (8th and 9th respectively)
Greater London leads the UK in patent filings
Greater London was the UK’s region with the most patent applications, with 2,366 patent filings, representing 38.9% of the total, The City of and London, however (with 2 232 applications) ranked 4th among all European cities within the EPO Member States, behind Munich (3,426), Paris (3,396), and Eindhoven (2,502).
The City of London also ranked 11th globally among cities, with Tokyo (Japan) at the top of the list. Other significant regions in the UK included the East of England, with 833 applications (13.7% share), closely followed by North West England, which had 689 applications (11.3%). Only England showed growth in 2024 amongst the UK countries, whilst Scotland (-3.1%), Northern Ireland (-2.7%) and Wales (-14.6%) all saw a decline in applications.
One in four patent applications includes a woman inventor
In 2024, 25% of patent applications at the EPO from the UK named at least one woman as an inventor, which is at the level of the European average. Women inventors were particularly active in the field of Chemistry, where 43% of patent applications originating in Europe featured women inventors, reflecting the highest representation.
Unitary Patent surpasses expectations in its second year
The Unitary Patent system, launched in 2023, continues to gain momentum, offering innovators simpler and more accessible patent protection across 18 EU Member States with a single request to the EPO. Unitary protection was requested for 25.6% of all European patents granted by the EPO in 2024, totalling over 28,000 requests. Patentees from EPO member states had the highest uptake rate, with 36.5% of their European patents transformed into Unitary Patents. UK patent owners requested unitary protection for 31.8% of their European patents in 2024, up from 24.8% in 2023.
Meanwhile, other regions had lower uptake rates, including the Republic of Korea (18.9%), China (17.9%), the US (16.0%), and Japan (7.9%). The top Unitary Patent requestors were Johnson & Johnson, Siemens, Samsung, Qualcomm, and Volvo Group. But smaller entities are even more inclined to use the system, with European SMEs and universities having an uptake rate of 57.5%.
Further information
- View the Patent Index 2024 in full
- Explore and customise statistics in our Statistics & Trends Centre
- Access Unitary Patent statistics via our dedicated dashboard
- Download datasets (MS Excel) in the Download data section of our statistics page
- Check patent trends on the go with the EPO Data Hub mobile app
- Read studies on innovation trends at the Observatory on Patents and Technology
- EPO’s support for SMEs, universities, non-profit organisations and other smaller applicants
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