Every week, the Intellectual Property Office publishes a journal of UK patents, including domestic and international applications.
It’s complex data – UK inventions proceed through application and search before being granted or terminated. Some applications are split into multiple publications later.
International patents are usually granted via the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) or from Europe, but some are filed separately in the UK to achieve an earlier priority date.
The journal includes only basic details of the applicants (company or individual), inventors, numbers, and title. But using Companies House data, you can link these to locations and business information. This lets us draw a map of where patents are filed in the UK.
Counting patents by region can be misleading. In Cambridgeshire, only 3 companies account for nearly half of all granted patents: ARM, CMR Surgical and Cambridge Mechatronics.
I think the number of companies applying for patents gives a better indication of each area’s ‘innovation ecosystem’. So, here’s a map of 2022’s UK patent applicants by district. This comes with the usual caveats – there are typos in both data sources. But I think it gives a good picture of the UK’s innovation centres.
As usual, London looks strong – but many UK and global corporations file through their headquarters here, regardless of where their inventions originate. Many regionally based companies such as GraphCore also use an office in the capital.
The UK’s ‘Golden Triangle’ is clearly obvious – there are many companies filing patents in Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire. But Manchester isn’t far behind and there are many innovators in the home counties.