Patent applicants and applications; technology areas application, 2000-2010

This table contains data on the number of patent applicants and applications from the Netherlands to the European Patent Office (EPO) and at NL Patent Centre, a division of Agency NL (NLOC). Patents may be granted to companies, universities, institutions, individuals or other entities as long as the invention meets the conditions for patentability. To qualify for a patent, an invention must be new, inventive and receptive to industrial application. Whether an invention meets these criteria is assessed by a patent office such as the EPO or the NLOC. The patent office will eventually grant or reject the application. The data on patent applicants and applications are broken down in this table by the technology area covered by the invention for which patent is sought. This does not necessarily have to be in the area in which the patent applicant is economically active. If a patent application relates to more technology areas, this application will be allocated to these technology areas for a proportionate proportion. For example, if an application concerns two technology areas, each area is counted 0.5 times in the table, so that the total of patent applications remains the same. However, the company submitting this patent application is counted twice in each technology field. Of a small part of the patent applications, the applicant or the technology area is not known to the Central Bureau of Statistics. Therefore, these patents are not included in the distribution of patent applicants by technology area. This table has been discontinued. Data available from 2000 to 2010. Status of the figures: The data until 2009 is final. The 2010 data is provisional. As this table has been discontinued, the data will no longer be definitive. Changes as of 30 October 2015: None, this table has been discontinued. When are new figures coming? No longer applicable.