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Switzerland tops list for patent applications per capita

Switzerland still in the top ten for patent applications
Switzerland still in the top ten for patent applications Keystone-SDA

Switzerland filed almost 10,000 patents in 2024, recording its fourth consecutive year of growth. It ranks third in Europe and seventh worldwide for total applications but is the country that filed the most applications per capita.

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These are the findings of the annual results of the European Patent Office (EPO), published on Tuesday. In total, the EPO registered almost 200,000 patent applications from all over the world, a stable level compared with the previous year. Switzerland accounted for 9,966 applications, 3.2% more than in 2023.

Computer science, which includes areas of artificial intelligence (AI), was the most important field for the first time, with 16,815 patent applications worldwide in 2024. Electrical machines, appliances and energy recorded the strongest growth (+8.9%).

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By contrast, digital communications, which includes inventions related to mobile networks, saw a decline of 6.3%.

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

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