Hi-tech and green patents in the running

A quantum leap may not be, but a quantum leap certainly is. The single solitary patent filed in 2016 in the field of quantum technologies has in fact multiplied by 13 eight years later. Unioncamere's analysis of innovation in terms of intellectual property from Italian subjects at the Epo (European Patent Office) generally shows a decisive growth in the area of emerging technologies, where the 170 patents filed in 2016 have risen to 255, with an almost constant progress year after year. Choral development, embracing every area considered, from advanced materials to nanotechnology, from cybersecurity to biotechnology. In terms of relative weight, however, the most overwhelming advance is that of artificial intelligence, where patents have risen from 13 to 52: if in 2016 they were worth less than 8% within the hi tech category, we have now moved to a share of over 20%. A sign of the times, which sees precisely in the spread of algorithms and related applications (as well as quantum computing) one of the most overwhelming trends. In general, underlines the Unioncamere research, Italy is accelerating along the route of the double transition, that of environmental sustainability and digital innovation, promoted by the NRP. The tangible sign is in the growth of patents, visible in both the technological and green fields, an area in which Italian European patent applications published between 2016 and 2024 grew by 56.6%. While those relating to Key Enabling Technologies (KETs), which drive innovation and digital transformation, have progressed by 49.9%, putting themselves 'at the service' of industrial strategies also for the reduction of consumption and emissions. After the slowdown in 2020, linked to the pandemic, the recovery has been decisive and continuous, a sign of a dimension, that of sustainability, which has now become a strategic lever for the production system that innovates. Between 2021 and 2024, the increase was 25.2% for green patents and 16.6% for those related to digital technologies (Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Technologies). Patent innovation that in numerical terms on the green side is clearly progressing: between 2016 and 2024, Italian patent applications at Epo totalled 2,424, with a peak in 2023.

While acceleration is widespread in several areas, the most represented class is that of methods and systems for processing company data (296 questions, 12% of the green total), which testifies to the increasing role of digital technology in process optimisation, as well as the growing information needs of companies in order to be able to produce their own sustainability reports. Other areas are also progressing, however, such as the measurement of electrical quantities (181 applications, 7.3%) or water treatment (161 applications, 6.5%). Although the most intense growth concerns physical separation processes (+166.7%), silencers and exhaust devices for engines (+150%), and electricity distribution and storage (+100%. This is a snapshot - Unioncamere explains - of an ecosystem that progressively combines energy, processes, soft mobility and software.

However, this path is by no means homogeneous across the territory, with values that reflect in a linear fashion the different weight of manufacturing and services in the various regions. Putting the total number of patents in these areas at 100, as many as 28% are in fact made by subjects resident in Lombardy. Adding to this the other manufacturing regions, i.e. Veneto, Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna, we arrive at almost two thirds of the total.