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European patent applications (patent families) by university

data publication
Science in Figures
13 July 2021
patent university
How many patents (patent families) have been filed per Dutch university in the period 1996-2020? In this data publication we share the figures from the Worldwide Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT) of the European Patent Office (EPO).

In short

  • Most Dutch universities show a growth in the number of patent applications (1996-2020).
  • TU Delft applies by far the most patents of all Dutch universities.
  • The number of patent applications by Utrecht University decreased throughout the period.

Number of patent applications from Dutch universities (1996-2020)

Source: European Patent Office (EPO), PATSTAT
Notes: A patent gives the holder the exclusive right to an invention, such that others can not commercially use or produce the processes or products described in the patent without permission. A patent only provides protection in the countries where it is requested. For each country separate patents must be applied. This implies there are several patents that describe the same invention. The whole of all these equal patents is called a patent family. This chart does not show the numbers of individual patent applications, but the patent families, the unique findings.

Analysis
In the time periods (1996-2000, 2001-2005, 2006-2010, 2011-2015, 2016-2020) the number of patent applications increased at most universities. The differences between universities are large. While TU Delft has filed more than 200 patent applications in the last period, a number of other universities do not exceed 50. This may have to do with the policy pursued within the universities and with the topics of research.
 

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