According to the 2017 annual report published by the European Patent Office (EPO), Denmark ranks third in the world for patent applications per capita. Last year the number of patents submitted in Denmark rose by 13.1 percent.
The report (here in English) showed that there were 377 patent applications per million citizens in Denmark, ranking Danes behind top dogs Switzerland and the Netherlands in second.
“As regards European patent applications filed relative to a country’s population, Switzerland again topped the ranking in 2017, with 884 applications per million inhabitants, followed by the Netherlands (412), Denmark (377), Sweden (374), and Finland (329),” the report stated.
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Novozymes lead the way
The Danes thus surpassed the Swedes, who were ranked third last year.
The three companies responsible for the greatest share of the 2,114 applications lodged last year in Denmark were Novozymes (193 applications), Novo Nordisk (144) and Vestas (82).
The lion’s share of the applications, 65 percent, stemmed from the Capital Region.
The EPO received a record 166,000 patent applications from European countries last year – a 3.9 percent increase from 2016.
