* indicates monthly or quarterly data series

Patent applications by residents, 2021:

The average for 2021 based on 43 countries was 2902 patent applications. The highest value was in Germany: 39822 patent applications and the lowest value was in Cyprus: 1 patent applications. The indicator is available from 1980 to 2021. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Measure: patent applications; Source: The World Intellectual Property Organization
Select indicator
* indicates monthly or quarterly data series


Countries Patent applications by residents, 2021 Global rank Available data
Germany 39822 1 1980 - 2021
Russia 19569 2 1992 - 2021
France 13386 3 1980 - 2021
UK 11592 4 1980 - 2021
Italy 10281 5 1980 - 2021
Turkey 8234 6 1980 - 2021
Poland 3377 7 1980 - 2021
Netherlands 2080 8 1980 - 2021
Austria 1872 9 1980 - 2021
Sweden 1771 10 1980 - 2021
Finland 1557 11 1980 - 2021
Spain 1308 12 1980 - 2021
Ukraine 1302 13 1992 - 2021
Switzerland 1288 14 1980 - 2021
Denmark 1090 15 1980 - 2021
Norway 946 16 1980 - 2021
Belgium 799 17 1980 - 2021
Romania 772 18 1980 - 2021
Portugal 711 19 1980 - 2021
Czechia 541 20 1993 - 2021
Hungary 433 21 1980 - 2021
Greece 394 22 1980 - 2021
Belarus 276 23 1993 - 2021
Slovenia 222 24 1991 - 2021
Bulgaria 165 25 1980 - 2021
Slovakia 146 26 1993 - 2021
Serbia 138 27 2004 - 2021
Luxembourg 112 28 1980 - 2021
Latvia 104 29 1992 - 2021
Lithuania 81 30 1991 - 2021
Croatia 77 31 1992 - 2021
Ireland 75 32 1980 - 2021
Moldova 64 33 1993 - 2021
Bosnia & Herz. 53 34 1999 - 2021
North Macedonia 42 35 1993 - 2021
Iceland 34 36 1980 - 2021
Estonia 25 37 1994 - 2021
Albania 23 38 2011 - 2021
San Marino 7 39 2013 - 2021
Malta 5 40 1980 - 2021
Monaco 5 41 1980 - 2021
Andorra 3 42 2018 - 2021
Cyprus 1 43 1980 - 2021



Definition: Patent applications are worldwide patent applications filed through the Patent Cooperation Treaty procedure or with a national patent office for exclusive rights for an invention--a product or process that provides a new way of doing something or offers a new technical solution to a problem. A patent provides protection for the invention to the owner of the patent for a limited period, generally 20 years.

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