The UAB has registered 328 patents in the last twenty years
The UAB is the second university in Spain in terms of patent applications. This is according to a new study by the European Patent Office (EPO) on academic inventions registered between 2000 and 2020. The report, which highlights the inventive role of universities in Europe, shows that Catalan universities are the leaders in patent applications in Spain. In the period analysed, the UAB registered a total of 328 patents.
Patent applications originating from European universities have been increasing over the last two decades, the report reveals. Specifically, they account for 10.2% of all patent applications filed at the EPO by European applicants in the period 2000-2020.
Spain ranks tenth in Europe in number of academic patents, and Catalonia leads the state in patent applications, with three Catalan universities in the top five: the University of Barcelona (UB) with 330 patents, and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), which ranks second, with 328, followed by the Polytechnic University of Valencia (301), the Polytechnic University of Catalonia - Barcelona Tech (298) and the Polytechnic University of Madrid (260).
Most of the patents applied for by the UAB correspond to the biomedical and health field, followed by electronic engineering, telecommunications and materials. Also noteworthy are the patents related to research into neurodegenerative diseases, rare diseases and biopesticides. Regarding the transfer of these patents to the socio-economic environment, in 2023, for example, the UAB signed eight licensing agreements with different companies.
The EPO report, which is based on data from 1,200 European universities that filed patent applications with the EPO between 2000 and 2020, also highlights that European universities have gone from filing 24% of applications in 2000 to 45% in 2019. This practice is also observed in Spain, where the vast majority of academic inventions are managed by universities.
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