Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Leading health technology company Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) today announced that, for the second year in a row, it is the world’s largest patent applicant for patents filed at the European Patent Office (EPO). According to the EPO’s 2016 Patent Applicant Company Ranking, which was released by the EPO today, Philips filed 2,568 patent applications* at the EPO during 2016.
In addition to being the company with the largest number of EPO filings, Philips also ranked first in three leading fields of technology: ‘Medical Technology’, ‘Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy’, and ‘Measurement.’ The EPO received more filings in the Medical Technology field than in any other area.
Philips was also once again by far the largest EPO patent filer from the Netherlands – responsible for a third of all patent applications by Dutch companies. As such, it continues to be a major contributor to the innovation landscape of the Netherlands.
Philips’ total Intellectual Property (IP) Portfolio consists of 79,000 patents, 49,000 trademarks, 86,000 design rights, and 4,400 domain names.
“We are very proud of maintaining our leading position as the number-one patent filer worldwide at the EPO in 2016,” said Brian Hinman, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Philips. “This ranking shows our commitment to innovation, protected by a strong IP portfolio. Intellectual Property is a strategic value-creating business asset for Philips, and is intimately linked to our mission of improving people’s lives through meaningful innovation. While we believe that the quality of our IP portfolio is more important than the quantity, we are still delighted that we have kept the top spot at the EPO.”
“The 2016 results confirm Europe’s attractiveness as a leading global marketplace for innovation,” said EPO President Benoît Battistelli. “Philips has consistently been among the most active applicants at the EPO for many years and for the company to once again be the EPO’s top applicant in 2016 is a great achievement. The prominence of Philips and other European companies in our ‘top ten’ attests to the dynamism of European inventors and innovators.”
The full press release and supporting materials produced by the European Patent Office can be found on www.epo.org. More information about Philips Intellectual Property & Standards can be found on www.ip.philips.com.
* This number includes the patent applications of Philips Lighting (for which Philips was the majority shareholder in 2016) and Lumileds (a wholly owned subsidiary of Philips in 2016).
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