Dutch Hospitals File Over 500 European Patent Applications in 20 Years

24 October 2025, Over the past 20 years, Dutch hospitals have filed 559 European patent applications. This emerges from a new study by the European Patent Office and Fraunhofer ISI, highlighting the growing role of public research organizations (PROs) in European innovation.

Patent applications are an important measure of innovation: they reflect both the intention and the effort to develop new inventions, according to the Patent Office.

Direct Applications
Where hospitals previously mainly supported patent applications from third parties, indirectly, they are now increasingly filing patents themselves. In the Netherlands, 60 percent of hospital applications are now direct filings, giving them the highest share in Europe.

LUMC
This demonstrates the strong technology transfer within Dutch research hospitals, with the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) leading in direct applications. The Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) accounted for 140 applications, while the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) was responsible for 187 applications.