EuroWire, VIENNA: Austria recorded a marked rise in patent activity last year, with companies and inventors from the country filing 2,253 European patent applications in 2025, up 5.0% from 2,146 in 2024. The increase outpaced the broader growth rate across the European Patent Office’s 39 member states, where filings rose 0.4%, and also exceeded the 1.4% increase in total applications received by the EPO worldwide. The figures point to a stronger year for Austrian innovation in both regional and domestic filing systems.
Austria ranked 16th worldwide by the number of European patent applications filed in 2025 and placed eighth among EPO member states on a per capita basis, with 245 applications per million inhabitants. The latest data show Austrian applicants maintaining a significant presence in Europe’s patent system despite modest overall growth across the continent. Total patent applications filed with the EPO reached 201,974 in 2025, underscoring the relative strength of Austria’s increase compared with the wider regional picture.
The strongest Austrian activity at the European level was concentrated in industrial and engineering-related technologies. Electrical machinery, apparatus and energy led with 223 applications, followed by civil engineering with 157 and other special machinery with 155. Among those, other special machinery recorded the fastest growth, rising 37.2% from a year earlier. The sector breakdown highlights the weight of manufacturing, energy and industrial design in Austria’s patent pipeline during 2025.
Industrial technologies drive filings
Company-level data also showed a concentrated group of large Austrian filers. Borealis led with 173 European patent applications, followed by Voestalpine with 85, Julius Blum with 73, Tridonic with 62 and AMS-Osram with 43. The ranking reflects a mix of chemicals, steel, hardware, lighting and semiconductor-linked technologies. Those filings helped lift Austria’s overall total and reinforced the role of established industrial groups in shaping the country’s patent output across the European system.
At the domestic level, the Austrian Patent Office said patent and utility model applications reached 2,272 in 2025, an increase of 4.4% from the previous year. Regional data showed Upper Austria leading with 496 filings, ahead of Styria with 435 and Vienna with 428. Among national applicants, AVL List ranked first with 179 filings, followed by Julius Blum with 105 and Siemens Mobility Austria with 32, indicating that engineering and industrial technology remained central to Austria’s national filing base as well.
Strong uptake of unitary protection
Austria also posted a high take-up rate for the Unitary Patent, the system that allows patent protection across multiple participating European Union countries through a single request. Of the 1,438 European patents granted to Austrian applicants in 2025, 755 were converted into unitary protection, producing an uptake rate of 52.5%. That was up from 46.6% in 2024 and stood above both the European Union average of 40.7% and the global average of 28.7%, according to the latest patent office data.
The combined increase in European filings, national applications and unitary patent use made 2025 a stronger year for Austria’s patent landscape. The figures show gains in volume, broad participation across regions and continued strength in industrial technology fields that have long formed the backbone of Austrian research and development activity. With Austria outperforming wider European growth in patent applications, the latest data provide a clear measure of increased inventive output in the country last year.