Inventors filed a record number of patents in Finland last year, with the highest number in the field of digital communications.
The Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) has accepted patent applications for a bumper crop in 2023. The agency announced on Sunday that it had received 1,745 applications, the highest number in 10 years.
After that, the number of patents decreased in 2021 and 2022. Before that, international media cited the country’s active application rate as an indicator of Finland’s level of innovation.
The field with the most applications was electrical engineering. Within this category, there were 281 applications for digital communications inventions, followed by 106 applications for computer technology, and 92 applications for telecommunications inventions.
In the equipment sector, there were 104 bids for measuring instruments and 79 bids for medical technology. In “other fields,” there were 102 cases in civil engineering and 67 cases in consumer goods such as furniture and games. These classifications are set by the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization.
The majority of applications were from the Uusimaa region, which includes Helsinki. Contributed to almost 70% of the application. There were also large numbers of participants from Pirkanmaa, which includes Tampere, and Northern Ostrobothnia, where the largest city, Oulu, is located.
The busiest months for filing patent applications were February and June, and the sleepiest was July, when many Finnish companies and inventors went on vacation.
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