LISBON, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Patent applications from Portugal reached a record high of 368 in 2025, according to the European Patent Office (EPO) Technology Dashboard 2025 released on Tuesday. This represents a 6.1 percent year-on-year increase, and more than doubles the amount of patent applications since 2016.
According to EPO, the figures reflect an increasingly dynamic innovation ecosystem in Portugal. Computer technology and health-related sectors are the primary areas of innovation in the country, with medical technology posting particularly strong growth of 32 percent compared to 2024. Meanwhile, biotechnology grew by 5 percent, bucking a general downward trend at the EPO level.
Other sectors recording sharp increases included packaging and handling technologies, up more than 75 percent; furniture and games, up more than 62.5 percent; and transport and automotive technologies, up more than 50 percent. Pharmaceutical applications, however, fell by 9.5 percent.
OPRIMEE-Innovation Design Engineering Solutions led the Portuguese applicants with 26 patent requests, followed by NOS Inovacao with 18, and INESC Porto-Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering of Porto with 14.
The northern region of Portugal accounted for 39 percent of all national applications, making it the most active part of the country for patent activity.
At European level, the EPO received a record 201,974 patent applications in 2025. This represented a 1.4 percent rise from the previous year, and the first time the agency has surpassed 200,000 applications.
Applications from within Europe grew by 0.4 percent, while those from outside Europe increased by 2.1 percent.
EPO President Antonio Campinos welcomed the figures as a sign of Europe's innovation capacity but called for focused attention on strategic sectors. These include artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, health, and quantum technologies. Gaps remain despite the progress shown by the data, he underlined. ■