Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what comparative assessment he has made of the level of patents granted in the UK with other (a) EU, (b) OECD and (c) developed economies in each of the last three years for which data is available; and if he will make a statement.

Figures for patents applied for and granted in different jurisdictions can be obtained from the website of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (www.wipo.int), which collates the figures from intellectual property offices around the world.

The table shows the number of patents granted by national offices and by the European Patent Office (EPO) as recorded by WIPO, for both resident and non-resident applicants.

Many applicants choose to apply for patent protection in the UK and other European states via the EPO. However these are not recorded as grants for the individual countries in the table. According to the EPO around 75% of granted EPs take effect in the UK.

The number of granted patents in any one jurisdiction is dependent on many factors including applicants’ business models, local market structure, and the legal requirements of the jurisdiction, since patent law varies. It also reflects the capacity of patent offices to process applications.

Source: WIPO statistics database. Last updated: March 2015