Out-Law News 2 min. read
14 May 2010, 3:06 pm
European Union countries as a whole still fall far behind the US in terms of the number of patents applied for when population is taken into account, though. The US has been responsible for between 20% and 50% of the world's technology patent applications while the EU has never been responsible for more than 20% of them, the research found.
The European Commission's Joint Research Centre studied research and development activity using data up to the year 2007. One part of that research used patent activity "as a proxy of the inventive activity itself", though the report said that it was "aware of the limitations pointed out by the literature with regard to such an exercise".
The research found that more patents are applied for in the EU than the US overall, but that the US files more per head of population than the EU. Between 1990 and 2006 the US filed more information and communication technologies (ICT) patents than the EU outright, as well as per head of population.
The US was responsible for a larger number of patent applications per head than the EU in 1990, but by 2006 the EU had caught up and was responsible for the same number across all categories as the US.
In 2006 the UK was the EU country with the third highest number of ICT-related patent applications. Germany was responsible for the highest number, which was nearly three times the number for which French of British inventors were responsible.
The research also examined the overall state of ICT research and development and found that though it accounted for just 5% of the EU's GDP it was responsible for a quarter of the region's R&D funding and employed nearly a third of its private sector researchers.
"However, even with these numbers the EU is still lagging behind global competitors in terms of both public and private ICT R&D investment," said a Commission statement.
"To help achieve our goal of investing 3% of GDP in research and development, Europe needs to double its public spending on ICT R&D by 2020 and also create the best conditions for the private sector to do the same," said Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes.
The research found that Germany is the biggest EU employer in ICT manufacturing, while the UK is the biggest ICT employer in services, being responsible for 19% of EU ICT services jobs.
The report's analysis of public funding of research found that the US spent twice as much as the EU in funding ICT research, with €10.4 billion going to researchers compared with the EU's €5.3bn.
It also found that technology was proportionately favoured in US funding. In the US 9% of its research funding was for the ICT sector, whereas just 6% of EU research funding was ICT-focused.
The European Commission last year said that it would increase its ICT research funding from €1.1bn in 2010 to €1.7bn in 2013 and called on EU countries to match the increase.
