Swiss companies filed almost seven times as many patent applications per million inhabitants last year as companies in the United States. The medical technology sector led the field. After a slight decline due to Covid in 2020, patent applications in Europe rose again last year, the European Patent Office (EPO) said in a statement. The Munich-based body received a total of 188,600 patent applications in 2021, an increase of 4.5% year-on-year, setting a new record. It registered 8,442 patent applications from Switzerland, up 3.9%. The US remains the country with the highest number of patent applications (46,553), while patent filings from Chinese companies “continued to climb steeply”, increasing by 24% last year (16,665), the EPO said. Per million inhabitants, however, Switzerland remains way out in the lead with 969 patent applications, followed by Sweden (488), Denmark (454), the Netherlands (383) and Finland (380). The US had 140 applications per million inhabitants and the UK 82.