After two difficult years, the number of patent applications in the Netherlands grew significantly in 2021. Of all the applications submitted, Brabant contributes to almost fifty per cent. Phillips rises to the occasion, becoming the company that applied for the most patents.
Trends
The number of patent applications in the Netherlands fell sharply in recent years. This was partly due to the corona crisis (a loss of nearly three per cent in 2019, falling eight per cent in 2020). But now the innovation sector is slowly picking up. According to the European Patent Office (EPO), there is a three per cent increase in the number of applications.
Brabant and Eindhoven
The province of North Brabant has yielded over fifty per cent of the patent applications in the country for many years. In the top five cities for Dutch inventions, Eindhoven remains the frontrunner, followed by Bergen op Zoom and Veldhoven. At the European level, Eindhoven ranks in third place, behind Munich and Paris. The city scores among the top ten on a global level too, ranking eighth.
High Tech Campus
Phillips is the company that applied for the most patents of all Dutch companies. The company is the world’s number one in the field of medical technology, outranking two American giants, Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson.
However, Philips is not the only company to come up with inventions. The High Tech Campus is full of companies such as ASML and NXP, but also many smaller startups.
One such startup is Pharmi. The company came up with a digital pharmacist, to help people comprehend the often complicated leaflets with information about the product. Further, an interesting development from Bambi Medical is the development of the Bambi belt for premature babies. With this innovation it may no longer be needed to stick sensors all over the baby’s sensitive skin. A soft, skin-friendly belt can combine all these in one.
Source: Omroep Brabant
Translator: Seetha
