Breakdown of EPO applications by residence of applicants 2004

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Breakdown of EPO patent applicationsby residence
of applicants 2004
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• competitive environment (USA, JP, EU), more
  emerging competitors (China, India,..)
• the more competitive the environment, the
  stronger the need for different actors within
  each territory to cooperate
• knowledge economy based on all kinds of
  technology, and on cooperation/networking
• an important indicator for the knowledge economy
  is the number of patent applications

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Number of patent applications to the European
Patent Office (EPO) from different European
regions

• An important indicator for the knowledge economy
  is the number of
• patent applications from a region. The number of
  patent applications
• to the EPO is rising every year. The graph shows
  data from different
• European regions for the year 2001 (source
  www.pzh.nl).

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Alain Pompidou, President of the EPO

• "Europe has the most dynamic regional system for
  the issue of patents, allowing companies to cover
  31 countries and 500 million people with a single
  patent application at the EPO"
• (address speech during the epoline Conference in
  Athens, 23 November 2005)