Switzerland has topped the league for innovation as it made more European patent applications per capita than any other country in 2015.
Switzerland applied for 873 patents per million inhabitants in 2015, a 2.6% rise over 2014, according to the European Patents Office (EPO).
Overall it was granted 3,037 patents, an increase of nearly 9% on the preceding year. This accounted for 4% of the record 68,400 patents awarded by the EPO last year.
Next in line were the the Netherlands and Sweden. Japan, the first country outside of Europe, placed ninth.
The rise in numbers is “an indicator of the growing demand for patent protection from businesses worldwide,” the EPO said in a statement accompanying the release of its annual report.
