The European Patent Office grants about 100,000 patents per year (EPO Statistics here). The grant date opens a 9-month window in which third parties can file an opposition against the patent, and each year about 2-3% of European patents are contested in this way.
An opposition being filed against a patent signals its commercial significance. This means that companies having large numbers of opposed patents may be regarded as holding relatively valuable technology portfolios.
We analysed the EPO’s data to find out which companies had the most patents that were opposed in 2023.
We found that over 35 companies were recorded as having at least 7 patents opposed in 2023, spanning sectors from functional foods, to antiperspirants, to elevators. This distribution is markedly different from our reviews of the individual patents that each receive many oppositions – there the distribution is usually heavily weighted towards therapeutics and biotechnology (the 2023 list of most opposed patents is here). The chart below shows a type of patent strategy adopted by some companies: to pursue large numbers of patents.
For a list of each company’s patents that were opposed in 2023, just click on the bar.
Patent sectors
Engineering
Energy
Industrial chemistry and consumer products
Therapeutics
Food and Nutrition
Medtech
Finance and Security
