The UAB continues to lead Spain in patent applications

La UAB, primera universitat de l'Estat espanyol en sol·licituds de patents

The annual report of the European Patent Office places the UAB at the top of the list of Spanish universities in terms of patent applicants, with a total number of 20 European patent applications filed.

15/03/2017

The European Patent Office (EPO) recently presented its annual report on European patent applications. According to the report, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona continues to be the first university in Spain in number of applications.

In 2016, the UAB Valorisation and Patents Office presented 20 European patent applications and an additional 27 patents, including international extensions and national patents. The total number for that year thus was 47.

These patents represent the starting point for an added social and economic value of the research conducted at the university. Last year, the UAB signed 10 licence agreements with different firms with the aim of transferring its research results to its socio-economic surroundings.

The information and communication technologies sector is the one to generate more licence agreements, with a total of five, followed by the bio-tech sector (4) and the pharmaceutical sector (1).

Catalonia represents 35% of all Spanish patent applications
When divided by autonomous regions, Catalonia is the region where the greatest number of patents applications were filed, a total of 547 representing an increase of 6.6% in comparison to 2015. That represents 35.1% of the applications filed in all of Spain. Madrid was the segond region with 321 applications and a decrease of 11%, followed by the Basque Country (209), Valencia (116) and Andalusia (103).

The company which applied for the greatest number of patents, a total of 30, was the pharmaceutical Laboratoris Esteve, followed by the Spanish National Research Council (29), Telefónica (26) and the petrol company Repsol and the UAB, each with 20 patent applications filed.