Siemens value IP

The 2011 Annual Report of the European Patent Office (EPO) shows the continued importance that Siemens AG attach to obtaining patents. The company submitted 2,235 patent applications to EPO in 2011 well ahead of Philips (1,759) and Samsung (1,733). German companies filed the most patent applications (33,181) followed by France (12,107), Switzerland (7,786) and UK (6,464). The top technical field for EPO applications was medical technology.