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Philips is once again the biggest applier of patents in Europe. That became clear as the European Patent Office (EPO) published its annual report on Tuesday. In total, Philips was responsible for 2568 filed patents in 2016. In 2015, that number was slightly higher: 2680.

The top three of companies that filed for the most patents is filled up by Huawei (2390) and Samsung (2316). Just like last year, Brabant leads the Netherlands in the numer of filed patents.

The total amount of patent applications with the EPO in 2016 (159.353) is slightly lower than the total amount in 2015: 0.4 percent. The total amount of granted patents however is a lot higher than it was a year ago: with 95.940 that number has seen a rise of 40.2 percent.

Read here all about the importance of patents for a multinational like Philips

Just like in 2015, the most applications for patents were filed in the field of medical technology. A field which is broadly explored in Eindhoven. Though there was a slight drop in that field: -2.1 percent. Wel was daar in 2016 een daling te zien van 2.1 procent. De grootste stijging in de top 5 van velden waarin het meest gepatenteerd wordt, was te zien in het veld van de elektrische apparaten en energie: 5,1 procent.

The largest rise in the top 5 of fields which gets the most patent filings can be found in the field of Electrical Machinery/Energy: 5.1 percent.

Take a look at the most significant number from the report in this infographic:

Bron: EOB
Source: EPO