China's Patent Applications to Europe Rank Third

The European Patent Office (EPO) released its 2025 Technology Briefing Report (previously referred to as the Patent Index) on the 24th, stating that it received 22,031 patent applications from China in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 9.7%. The number of patent applications from China ranked third for the first time, making it the fastest-growing country among the top ten patent-filing nations.

Overall, the EPO received a total of 201,974 patent applications from around the world in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 1.4%, reaching a record high. The top five countries in terms of the number of patent applications were the United States, Germany, China, Japan, and South Korea.

The report shows that patent applications from China accounted for 10.9% of the total applications received by the EPO in 2025. Among these, digital communication was the field with the most patent applications from China. In addition, transportation and semiconductors were the fastest-growing areas for Chinese patent applications, with year-on-year growth exceeding 30% in both fields.

In terms of corporate rankings, among all companies that submitted patent applications to the EPO in 2025, China's Huawei ranked second, with a total of 4,744 patent applications. China's Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) ranked tenth with 1,305 patent applications. This marks the first time that two Chinese companies have entered the top ten. South Korea's Samsung ranked first, followed by South Korea's LG and the United States' Qualcomm in third and fourth places, respectively. In addition to Huawei and CATL, four other Chinese companies entered the top 50: Xiaomi, ZTE, OPPO, and Tencent.

From a technical field perspective, the field with the most patent applications received by the EPO in 2025 was computer technology, with a total of 17,844 applications, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%. The report suggests that the rapid development of artificial intelligence is the main driver behind the growth in patent applications in this field. The field of digital communication saw the largest increase in the number of patent applications, with a year-on-year growth of 11.4%, reaching 17,802 applications.