Catalonia leads Spain in patent applications, surpassing Madrid

The number of patent applications submitted in Barcelona exceeded those of Madrid, leading Spain in number of applications filed, and registering an increase from 2014. Within the EU, Spain is “at the tail end of the main group”, while Catalonia shows a “certain innovation that possibly doesn’t exist yet in other Spanish regions”. In Barcelona, the Esteve pharmaceutical laboratory is the Catalan business which has submitted the most patent applications, followed by the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and the pharmaceutical company Almirall. Spain has not yet decided to join the EU Unitary Patent, which would give it access to the standardised patent system but exclude it from having “any influential capacity” in its regulatory bodies.

The European Patent Office's president, Benoit Batistelli (by ACN)
The European Patent Office's president, Benoit Batistelli (by ACN) / ACN

ACN

March 4, 2016 04:50 PM

Brussels (CNA).- Barcelona leads the rankings for most patents submitted in Spain in 2015, totalling 515 applications submitted, surpassing those submitted by Madrid (360). Last year also saw an increase of 5.7% from the number of patents Catalonia submitted in 2014. The three main entities which have submitted patent applications in Barcelona are the Esteve Laboratory, the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and the Almirall pharmaceutical company. In terms of patents submitted within the EU, Spain is “at the tail end of the main group”, while Catalonia shows a “certain innovation that possibly doesn’t exist yet in other Spanish regions”. Specifically, patents submitted by the pharmaceutical industry are nearly all concentrated in Catalonia. Due to linguistic conflicts, Spain has also not yet accepted the EU Unitary Patent Regulation, a standardised patent model that many EU countries have opted into. Excluding itself from this regulation will allow Spain to utilise the model, but will preclude it from having “any influential capacity” in its regulatory bodies.


Catalonia leads the Spanish ranking in patent applications with numbers exceeding those of Madrid, according to the ranking published this Thursday by the European Patent Office. In 2015, Catalan researchers and businesses made 515 applications, representing 33.8% of the 1,525 applications submitted in all of Spain. Madrid only contributed 360 applications, contributing 23.6% of the total. The leading Catalan business in patent applications is Esteve Laboratories, with 23 applications, followed by the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, and Almirall Laboratories, which respectively filed for 18 and 17 patent applications. In Barcelona alone, 278 patent applications were registered (with nearby towns Sant Cugat de Vallès and Castelldefels filing for 24 and 12, respectively).

Applications filed in Catalonia increased by 5.7% from the 487 applications submitted in 2014. The aforementioned registered growth is 19 times the EU average of only 0.3%. In the whole of Spain, the increase was also quite high, registering 3.8%. Catalonia leads the Spanish ranking for patent applications, with an advantage of 155 over Madrid. The Basque Country takes third place, with 199 patent applications, representing 13% of the total number. The numbers of the remaining Spanish autonomous communities are far behind: 97 applications were registered in the Community of Valencia, 96 in Andalusia, 50 in Navarre, 46 in Galicia, while Aragon contributed 38 and Castile and Léon submitted 29.

In 2015, businesses and researchers from the counties of Girona, a city in the northeast of Catalonia, submitted 24 applications. This exceeded those submitted by the principality of Asturias (21), the community of Castilla-La Mancha (16), the region of Murcia (15), the Canary Islands (11), the province of Rioja and the Balearic Islands (8), the region of Cantabria (5) and that of Extremadura (3). In the counties of Lleida 17 applications were submitted (registering an increase of 183.3% from 2014) while Tarragona filed for 13 patent applications. After Barcelona, Sant Cugat del Vallès and Castelldefels, the Catalan towns with most patent applications are Santa Perpètua de Mogoda (9), and Badalona and Rubí (8).

Among the prominent Catalan businesses and research centres with the highest number of patent applications are the names of Galenicum Health (12), the Universitat de Barcelona and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (10 each), Laboratorios Lesvi (9), the Fundació Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Bellvitge I Interquim (8), the Fundació Hospital Universitari Vall d´Hebron and the Fundacion Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (7), Mespack (6), and Fico Triad, Grifols, Simon and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (5).

Leading the Spanish rankings are the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Amadeus and Telefónica, respectively having submitted 47, 34 and 31 applications in 2015. Esteve Laboratories is in 4th position, the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in 6th, and Almirall in 7th. The metropoles of Madrid and Barcelona are almost tied, having submitted 351 and 350 patent applications respectively.

Last year, the European Patent Office received a total of 160,000 applications. The main applicants were the United States, Germany, Japan, France and the Netherlands. Spain holds 17th position in the rankings, with 1,527 applications. Catalonia would be in 24th place, higher than Norway (512), Turkey (447) or Luxembourg (404).

Spain is “at the tail end of the main group”

Alberto Casado, vice-president of the European Patent Office, told CNA that in Catalonia there is a “certain innovation that possibly doesn’t exist yet in other Spanish regions”. Casado pointed, particularly, to the section referring to the pharmaceutical industry, which is “basically concentrated in Catalonia” and is “the first” in number of patents registered by the whole of Spain.

Casado noted that the situation as regards the whole of Spain has “much” improved in the last years, “as much for its presence as for the number of patent applications”. However, he indicated that now, Spain is “at the tail end of the main group” and is therefore “far from” a “desirable” level, for a region with its level of economic burden.

The vice-president of the European Patent Office affirms that, with the exception of Catalonia, Madrid and the Basque Country, Spain is based “more in a commercial than an innovative tradition.” “We still have little innovation”, regretted Casado.

Linguistic Conflict

Spain refuses, for now, to join the European Unitary Patent, a single patent system for the EU, due to linguistic conflict: Spanish is not amongst the mandatory languages of English, German and French. The President of the European Patent Office, Benoit Battistelli, has warned the Spanish authority to decide whether they want to “be part of the Champions League or the Second Division”.

According to Casado, it “will take some time” for Spain to ratify the European Unitary Patent, but it’s necessary that “the Spanish authorities and especially the industry itself bring up these issues and decide what their position is”.

“It’s between joining the rest of the countries in the EU that have accepted this new system, even though it’s not perfect, or preferring to remain on the sidelines” the vice-president of the European Patent Office commented.    

Ultimately, it will be “not only a political decision, but also essentially an economic one” stated Casado. For that matter, he remarked that businesses must “decide what their corporate and industrial objective is”. If Spain doesn’t accept the unitary model, companies from Catalonia and the rest of the country will be able to use the European Unitary Patent system, but the administration won’t have “any influential capacity” in its regulatory bodies.