Patent applications to the EPO by priority year (1977-2017)

In 2017, the EU-27 figure for patent applications to the EPO by priority year (1977-2017) was 49,211 .

That is a 2.4% fell versus 2016 (50,440).

Over the five years before that, the EU-27 aggregate moved 4.2% lower.

Across member states, Germany reported the highest value (18,881, 2017) and Malta the lowest (6, 2017) — a ratio of 3146.8× between the two ends of the range.

The figures below come from Eurostat dataset pat_ep_ntot; every value links back to the canonical source.