Swiss start-up scene tops patent rankings

The European Patent Office (EPO) has carried out a study to identify the universities from which start-ups use research results. Three Swiss universities made it to the Top 12. It is therefore not surprising that Swiss start-ups also stand out in Europe when it comes to the number of patents.

Europe’s universities are becoming increasingly vibrant workshops for many inventions in recent decades. Amongst European applicants to the European Patent Office (EPO), they were responsible for over 10% of patent applications in 2019 (up from around 6% in 2000). The growing role that universities play in patenting and commercialising inventions is revealed in a study published last week by the EPO’s Observatory on Patents and Technology, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (Fraunhofer ISI).

The study is based on data from over 1200 universities and their knowledge transfer offices (KTOs) over twenty years (2000 to 2020). The study investigated “academic patents”, namely applications originating at universities or their KTOs and which have one or more named inventors who are academic researchers. 

The study shows that university research benefits young companies: 12% of all academic patents were filed by more than 1 500 European startups. The knowledge transfer to start-ups is concentrated at a few universities: Three quarters of these companies sourced their academic inventions from a short list of 25 high-profile European universities. All of them belong to the 2% of European universities that filed more than 500 academic applicants in the period 2000–2020. In total they are related to 4 040 patent applications filed by 1 197 European startups.

Switzerland is very well positioned in the ranking of the most important universities for start-ups. ETH Zurich tops the list, followed by EPFL in fifth place and the University of Zurich in twelfth place. The UK also performed very well, with four universities in the top eight. France has the largest share of the top 25 universities with seven, three of which were recently created as the result of mergers. Germany performed significantly weaker.

In terms of the number of academic patents registered by start-ups, France is in first place, ahead of the UK. Switzerland comes in third, ahead of Sweden. Other countries, including Germany, have significantly fewer academic patents from start-ups.

High density of start-ups with patents in Switzerland

Accompanying the launch of this study, the EPO’s free Deep Tech Finder (DTF) has been expanded. Leveraging the EPO’s extensive patent information, the tool offers detailed insights into the development of inventions in specific technological fields and their protection using the European patent system.

The Deep Tech Finder is also a good indicator of the number of deep tech startups in different European countries, as the database allows to identify startups with pending or granted European patents. According to the Deep Tech Finder, 653 startups in Switzerland fulfil this criterion. If we relate this figure to the population, Switzerland comes out extremely well. There are 74.2 startups with European patents per million inhabitants in this country. For Sweden, the figure is 48.6, and for the UK, 23.5.


Start-ups with pending or granted European patents per capita. Source: EPO - Deep Tech Finder

(Stefan Kyora)