ABB number one for Swiss patent applications in 2019

ABB has secured first place among Swiss companies in the European Patent Office’s (EPO) list of patent applicants in 2019. ABB is listed with 689 patent applications for 2019, an increase of 21% compared to the previous year.

The annual list is published by the EPO in Munich, Germany, and highlights the companies and countries with the largest number of patents in Europe. Switzerland is the world’s innovation champion, with 988 patent applications per 1 million inhabitants, followed by Sweden, which recorded 433 patent applications per 1 million people. The overall number of applications registered in Switzerland grew by 3.6% to a new record number of 8249, while Sweden registered an increase of 8% to 4381.

The majority of patents applied for by ABB in 2019 are geared towards increased sustainability by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy and operations efficiency. Close to 60% of ABB’s global revenues already come from solutions that protect the environment and combat global warming. Ongoing research and development will support ABB’s efforts to increase this percentage even further in 2020.

“Maintaining a focus on sustainable technologies in research and development is more important than ever,” said Bazmi Husain, Chief Technology Officer of ABB. “Our R&D organisation will continue to create value for our customers and other stakeholders by applying patents for products, services and solutions. With our approach, we are paving the way for an increasingly autonomous and digital industry.”

In 2019, ABB increased its investments in research and development by 4.4% to $1.2 billion, or 4.3% of annual revenues, and the company employs some 7000 researchers globally.

In addition, the company continues to partner with more than 100 leading universities around the world. Among them ABB is working with Carnegie Mellon and Stanford University in the United States, University of British Columbia in Canada, Imperial College in the UK, the Indian Institute of Technology, China’s Tsing Hua University, Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology and ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

ABB is further leveraging its R&D ecosystem to enhance innovation efforts and gain speed with strategic digital partners like Microsoft, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Dassault Systèmes, and by investing and collaborating with start-ups worldwide via its corporate venture arm, ABB Technology Ventures, and its start-up accelerator arm, SynerLeap.