The European Patent Office (EPO), has revealed its most recent statistics regarding new patent applications filed in 2011: about 243 000 European Patent Applications were filed last year. This is a new record, and a 3% increase comparing to the filings in 2010.

62% of the applications came from non-European countries and the biggest contributor to this increase was China with over 16.000 EP applications (about 4.400 more than in 2010).

USA, Japan and Germany remain the top countries with 59.000, 47.000 and 33.000 EP applications filed in 2011, respectively.

To view the full report, click here.