The 2025 statistics published by the European Patent Office (EPO) are not merely news that “the number of Chinese patent applications has increased.” In 2025, patent applications filed with the EPO reached a record high of 201,974, up 1.4% year on year. Among them, China surpassed Japan with a 9.7% increase over the previous year, rising to third place by country for the first time. Moreover, 57% of all EPO applications came from outside Europe, while computer technology accounted for 17,844 applications and digital communication for 17,802, showing that digital fields strongly drove overall growth. In other words, Europe should be seen not simply as a region for obtaining protection, but as a global market in which the world’s major players compete head-on.
China’s rise to third place is significant because it appears to reflect not a temporary increase, but a move to position Europe clearly as a strategic market. According to EPO materials, the number of applications from China has tripled since 2016, and this rise to third place is an extension of that trend. It seems to indicate that obtaining patent rights in Europe is no longer something Chinese companies do only if they have spare capacity, but rather something that has become a premise for business expansion and technology negotiations.
Another important point in these statistics is that China’s rise should not be viewed solely as a story about the communications sector. Across the EPO as a whole, digital communication grew by 11.4% year on year, the highest growth rate among the major fields, while computer technology also increased by 6.1%. In addition, AI-related applications rose by 9.5%, semiconductor technology by 7.6%, and electrical machinery and energy, including batteries, by 5.3%. Patent competition in Europe is gaining depth across interconnected technology areas such as communications, AI, semiconductors, and batteries, and the growing presence of Chinese companies must be understood within that broader trend.
When we look at the company rankings, this structure becomes even clearer. The top EPO applicants in 2025 were Samsung in first place, Huawei in second, LG in third, and Qualcomm in fourth, with CATL also entering the top ten in tenth place. Huawei filed 4,744 applications, and CATL filed 1,305. What this reveals is that the European patent strategy of Chinese companies is extending beyond communications infrastructure and devices into batteries and mobility-related sectors as well. The ranking suggests that competition in Europe is no longer “digital communications” versus “manufacturing,” but rather a complex contest in which information and communications technologies are intertwined with energy and transportation.
Another point that cannot be overlooked is the awareness of how rights are to be used after they are obtained in Europe. According to the EPO, the overall uptake rate of the Unitary Patent reached 28.7% in 2025, and 22.6% of European patents originating from China were converted into Unitary Patents. This indicates an awareness not only of filing in Europe, but also of securing a form of protection that enables integrated enforcement across a wider territory after grant. Europe is no longer just one of several filing destinations; it has become a market that companies seek to secure with a view to post-grant enforcement and negotiation as well.
Read from the standpoint of Japanese companies, the implications of these statistics are quite clear. European filings can no longer be handled mechanically as just one part of overseas patenting. In fields such as digital communications, AI-related technologies, batteries, and semiconductors—where standardization, supply chains, joint research, and component supply are intricately intertwined—it is necessary to consider European patent acquisition together with competitor monitoring, early-stage FTO analysis, and portfolio design including divisional applications. The latest EPO statistics appear to show this need with considerable clarity.
The essence of this news lies not so much in the ranking change itself—that “China has overtaken Japan”—but in the fact that the axis of competition in European patents is shifting toward digital and energy technologies, while Chinese companies are now entering that arena in earnest. The significance of obtaining patents in Europe is increasingly tied not only to securing sales markets, but also to securing technological leadership and bargaining power. The EPO 2025 statistics can be seen as data that bring that reality into especially sharp focus.