In first six months of this year, positive trends have been observed at the Latvian Patent Office (LPO) in industrial property registration, and there is a cautious optimism at the European Union level (EU) as well.
The LPO recorded an average increase of 8% in the number of and industrial design applications filed under national procedure and in international trademark extensions to Latvia in first half year as compared to 2024. At the same time, the number of international design registrations extended to Latvia decreased by 15%.
19 industrial design applications filed under national procedure (17 in 2024), and 11 industrial design registrations extended to Latvia (13 in 2024) were filed over first six months this year.
In first half of the year, the LPO received 63 national patent applications, which is approximately a 30% increase compared to this time last year, when 42 patent applications were received. 10 applications were received from Latvian universities/institutes, 19 applications were submitted by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and 33 – by individual applicants.
46 national patents were granted in first half of the year, including:
27 – to universities/institutes
16 – to SMEs
3 – to individual applicants
At the same time, 12 international patent applications (PCT procedure) were filed with the LPO as the receiving authority.
312 translations of patent claims were received in Latvia for validation of European patents granted by the European Patent Office (EPO), which is approx. 5% less than at the same time last year. The decrease could be explained by the successful operation of the European unitary patent system, since approx. one third of European patent applicants from the member states of the European Patent Convention choose to register their patents with unitary effect, and therefore patent validation in Latvia is no longer required.
Latvian patent applicants are actively using the support opportunities within the project “On providing patent searches to Latvian applicants in cooperation with the EPO”. In first half of the year, free patent searches were requested from the EPO for 42 national patent applications, while 29 national applications were sent to the EPO for searching. In comparison, 45 patent searches were requested during the entire period last year.
Within the framework of the Ideas Powered for business SME Fund, a total of 365 requests were received from Latvian SMEs in first half of the year. To date, Latvian companies have applied for 452 services in total. As in the previous year, the most frequently requested support from the SME Fund continued to be for the registration of trademarks and industrial designs – 256 applications, EU trademarks (EUTMs) being the most actively registered ones. In turn, the second most requested form of support was the voucher for IP pre-diagnostic services. A total of 144 SMEs applied for the IP Scan service, while 59 requested the IP Scan Enforcement service. 11 requests were received for the voucher providing companies with financial support for patent registration.
In the EU, a total of 158,697 industrial property applications were filed in first six months of this year, which is 6.8% more than in the same period last year, according to the data of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
This rise was mainly driven by a significant increase in the number of EUTM filings, which grew by 8.1% reaching 96 175. As in recent years, the majority of applications – 58% – came from the EU member states, while 42% came from non-EU countries. The five countries with the highest number of filings were China (16.2%), Germany (12.3%), the United States (9%), Italy (7.1%), and Spain (6.8%).
Turning to industrial designs, the EUIPO received 62,522 applications, which is an increase of 4.9% compared to the same period last year. The five countries with the highest number of design filings were China (29.2%), Germany (13.7%), Italy (9.1%), the USA (8.8%), and Poland (4.9%).
In the EU, 24,672 SMEs made use of the SME Fund in the first half of 2025.