Context: Every year, the European Patent Office (EPO) releases a Patent Index, which shows the top European patent filers, as well as the leading fields in which those applications are being filed. In 2023, patent filings at the EPO were up 2.9%, with those from China and South Korea seeing the greatest absolute growth. Electrical machinery, apparatus and energy, a field that includes clean energy inventions and battery technologies, was the technology field that grew the fastest.
What’s new: The EPO yesterday released its Patent Index 2024, which found that there was no growth in applications since last year (in fact they declined by 0.1%) and that Samsung replaced Huawei as the top patent applicant for the first time in half a decade (March 25, 2025 EPO Patent Index 2024). Further, for the first time, computer technology, which covers areas like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and pattern recognition, emerged as the leading field, with 16,815 patent applications filed in 2024. Also, unitary protection was requested for 25.6% of all European patents granted by the EPO in 2024, totalling over 28,000 requests – a 53% increase compared to 2023 (18,300 requests).
Direct impact: No growth in European patent filings is not necessarily a bad thing – and may just mean that applicants hesitate to file because they are unsure they will meet the EPO’s standards. Plus, a 53% growth in Unitary Patent (UP) requests “surpassed expectations”, according to the EPO.
Wider ramifications: A field encompassing AI taking first place in top technologies does not come as a surprise, with the average annual growth rate in filings coming at 28% since 2019. The overall growth has slowed since 2021, according to the EPO, but with billions of euros in investment now committed to developing infrastructure globally, ranging from chip manufacturing facilities to new AI factories, this could shift soon.
There are several key takeaways from the EPO’s Patent Index 2024. We have broken them down into sections below.
1. Substantial reshuffling of the top 5 EPO filers
Samsung replaced Huawei as the new top applicant at the EPO in 2024, with 5,107 applications, after last topping the rankings in 2020. Huawei (4,322 filings) dropped to second and was followed by LG (3,623), Qualcomm (3,015), and RTX (2,061). Samsung’s return to the top signals that its patent portfolio is even more diversified than Huawei’s (which in turn is far more diversified than Qualcomm’s). Last year, this top 5 looked a little different, with Ericsson coming in fifth and RTX only placing seventh. In 2024, Ericsson dropped to eighth place, with its filings falling from 1,969 to 1,470.
2. Asia continues to carve out a quarter of the EPO pie
The EPO received 199,264 applications in 2024, down from 199,275 the previous year.
Just like in 2023, the top ten applicants this year include four from Europe, two from South Korea, two from the U.S., and one from each of China and Japan. There were nine European companies among the top 25, which is two more than in 2023.
While the U.S. remained the leading country of origin for European patent applications (followed by Germany, Japan, China and South Korea – of those top five, China (+0.5%) and South Korea (+4.2%) saw the most substantial growth. Their growth compared with 2023 was quite low, however, as China had seen an 8.8% jump and South Korea a 21.0% jump.
EPO member states continued to contribute to a steady 43% of filings (exactly the same as 2023), with (+0.4%) and France (+1.1%) being the top two, and Switzerland (+3.2%) and the UK (+3.1%) showing the strongest growth.
As seen in the pie chart below, however, companies from South Korea, China and Japan alone made up over 26% of applications. This is still substantially less than European countries (which together made up 43.3%, and the U.S. still leads with a mammoth 24% of applications, but the figure still demonstrates that the East Asian economies are still keen on filing at the EPO (they may just be cautious about ensuring quality).
Perhaps the newest development is that over a quarter of patents granted by the EPO last year requested unitary protection, which, according to the EPO, “surpassed expectations”. This was up 53% from 2023 – which is no surprise given how fresh the UP was at the time – meaning we may see a rise in Unified Patent Court enforcement soon, too.
3. AI-related inventions lead technology fields for first time
This year, for the first time, computer technology, which covers fields such as AI, machine learning, and pattern recognition, emerged as the leading field, with 16,815 patent applications filed. The greatest growth was seen, for the second year in a row, by the electrical machinery, apparatus and energy field (+8.9%) – this encompasses clean energy inventions and battery technologies – but computer technology also saw a 3.3% jump. Transport and biotechnology also saw some growth, with applications rising by a respective 3.5% and 5.4%, but filings in medical technology, digital communication and pharmaceuticals dropped by 3%, 6.3% and 13.2%, respectively.
Asian applicants also showed a strong investment in AI and computer technologies, with China, Japan and South Korea filing a combined 30.8% of all patents in this field. The U.S. continued to top the table though, with 34.4%, and European applicants came in third with a combined 29.5% of the filings. European growth was mainly driven by Germany (+12.7%), Switzerland (+37.4%) and the UK (+12.4%), while the U.S. saw an 11.4% rise.
Alphabet and Samsung were the field’s top applicants – and by some distance – as seen in the table below. They filed 1,097 and 922 applications, respectively. There is intense competition emerging between the U.S. and Asia in this field.
When it comes to AI-related inventions specifically, Alphabet led the way, and Samsung and Huawei shortly followed.
The EPO noted in its report that the growth in computer technology has trailed off since the double-digit increases seen in 2019 and 2021, but it has remained unbroken over the past decade. The chief driver of this growth, they said, is inventions for image recognition, pattern recognition, machine learning and neural networks, with an average annual growth rate in filings of 28% since 2019.
Within the field of AI, image and video recognition has seen an average growth rate of 59% since 2021. This area can be implemented in a vast range of ways – from bringing the prospect of autonomous vehicles forward in time to making robotic assistants more responsive than ever before.
The EPO stated:
“With tens of billions of euros in investment now committed to developing infrastructure globally, ranging from chip manufacturing facilities to new AI factories, inventive activity in Europe’s main innovation hubs offers a promising basis for heightened competitiveness in an increasingly data-driven world economy.”
4. Asia also dominates clean energy, battery technologies
Since 2015, electrical machinery, apparatus, and energy is the field that has seen the fastest growth (filings increased 64.8%), and this is largely driven by inventions in batteries and smart grid technologies. While climate legislation in the EU is a big contributor to this, it is not applicants in the EU that dominate the field. Asian applicants command this corner of the patent-filing arena now, particularly in battery technologies, where inventions accounted for more than two-fifths of all patent applications in the field in 2024.
Chinese companies’ filings jumped by 32.2%, while those from South Korea and Japan increased by 15.8% and 12.9%, respectively. The top ten applicants were all Asian, aside from Siemens, after Amperex Technology Limited (ATL) and Eve Energy displaced ABB and Robert Bosch.
When focusing on battery technologies, the EPO found applications grew even faster in 2024 (a 24% increase from the previous year) and that all top ten filers were Asian (accounting for 55% of applications). They included LG, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd, Samsung, Panasonic, ATL, Eve Energy, SK, Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, BYD, and Toyota Motor.
Only three European companies – Volvo Group, Volkswagen and Robert Bosch – were in the top 15. Meanwhile, U.S. applicants were nowhere to be seen.
