Spain:0.14% of world industrial patents in2021

Notification: Spanish companies need to pay more attention to intellectual property protection.

Innovations in mobility continue to develop at such a pace that sometimes they outstrip regulation. However, not all ideas should be properly protected. In 2021, only 177 applications for industrial patents were filed in Spain, which is just 0.14% of the total 126,000 registered patents worldwide. In Europe, Spain only surpassed Portugal (13 applications) and Greece (10 patents), while Germany filed more than 8,000 applications. "Spain is a country with special talent, but we allow it to be stolen because we are unable to foresee the need for its protection," said Isabel Marco, head of innovation projects at the consulting firm PONS IP, which, along with PONS Mobility, Madrid IPR HelpDesk, and with the support of the Madrid government, released the report "2023 Mobility Technology Map."

In the race for technological sovereignty

China ranks first with 68.97% of the total number of industrial patents, followed far behind by Japan (7.52%) and the United States (4.63%). These are astonishing figures, considering that Europe is still leading investments in research and development in the automotive industry, which amount to 62.6 billion euros.

An example of the insufficient number of patents in Spain is the company Zeleros Hyperloop, which produces supersonic trains.

“We currently have 7 patents, 2 of which are jointly with the Polytechnic University of Valencia, while the others are our own. Four of them have already been granted, and the rest are in process,” admitted Luz Smith Rodriguez, the company’s standards and regulations manager. These figures are related to the lack of awareness about the inherited benefits that patents provide, as well as the low priority that businesses give to industrial property.

Regarding the local situation

The director of the patents and technological information department of the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (OEPM), María José de Concepción, stated that "Spain does not have a developed culture of industrial intellectual property," although this is not an isolated case in the mobility sector. "The automotive industry is the third sector that contributes the highest percentage of innovations," she added. In 2021, the ten leading automotive companies in Spain accounted for 6.5% of the total number of innovations, with Honda and Toyota being the leaders.

New technologies are playing an increasingly important role in the industry.

where innovations are revolutionizing the entire industry. Many patents are related to the use of green hydrogen, but there are also applications related to autonomous vehicles, car-sharing or subscription services, and electric vehicles. "Cars are implementing software, and ways to protect it are being considered from the perspective of intellectual property," explained Luis Ignacio de Vicente, strategic advisor at PONS IP. For example, the industry is already using technologies like LIDAR, which determines the position of objects using sensors, to develop autonomous vehicles, and "patent pools" are being created to consolidate licensing fees for cars connected to 5G, Bluetooth, and other technologies. "In Europe, lawsuits are already underway from some patent holders because car manufacturers are not paying for patents," de Vicente emphasized. What is clear is that data will become the foundation of transportation. "In the future, we will see a lot of business based on mobile data," said Rocio Baguena, director of the research and technology division at the transport and mobility secretariat. And if Spain wisely utilizes its capabilities, it could take a leading position among the most innovative countries in this sector. The country is well-positioned: Spanish companies specializing in rolling stock are well-known in the international railway industry, especially due to their contribution to the development of high-speed transport, and various projects related to the production of sustainable fuels for all types of transport are already underway.