Overview
- EPO analysis of 2018–2022 patent data finds women named on just 13.8% of European applications.
- In France, women appeared on 16.7% of filings in 2018–2022, a marginal uptick from 16.4% in 2013–2017.
- The report notes rising participation in inventor teams but much lower likelihood of women being sole inventors.
- Women remain underrepresented among PhD holders involved in patent filings despite strong doctoral-level presence.
- The commercialization gap is sharp in France, with women making up about 10.2% of founders of start-ups that filed a European patent.