Women inventors

In November 2022, the EPO published a study looking at women’s participation in inventive activity, investigating how often women were named as inventors on patent applications. Of all the patent applications filed at the EPO by European applicants in 2023, 27% named at least one woman as an inventor. The rate varies significantly across countries and technologies. Among the larger European patent filing countries, Spain (46%), France (33%) and Belgium (32%) saw the highest shares of patent applications naming at least one woman as inventor. In terms of technology sectors, the average share ranged from 14% for filings in mechanical engineering to 50% in chemistry.