Switzerland retains patent-per-capita crown
Switzerland registered almost 10,000 patents last year. This puts it in seventh place worldwide and third place in Europe, behind Germany and France. It remains the country with the most patent applications per capita.
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In its annual report published on Tuesday, the European Patent Office (EPO) recorded more than 200,000 patent applications from all over the world for the first time (+1.4%). Switzerland recorded 9,914 applications, 0.5% fewer than in the record year of 2023.
In terms of population, Switzerland recorded 1,096 patent applications per million inhabitants. This puts it well ahead of Finland (613), Sweden and Denmark (both 446).
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Despite a decline of 7.7%, the medical technology sector filed the most patent applications in Switzerland (965). The field of “Other consumer goods” recorded an increase of 12.7% (931 applications), while the field of measurement technology fell by 8.6% (830).
Adapted from German by AI/ts
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