ABB has secured first place among Swiss companies in the European Patent Office’s (EPO) list of patent applicants in 2019, with 689 patent applications — an increase of 21% compared to 2018.

Switzerland is the world’s innovation champion with 988 patent applications per million people — followed by Sweden, which recorded 433 patent applications.

The overall number of applications registered in Switzerland grew by 3.6% to a new record number of 8,249, while Sweden registered an increase of 8% to 4,381.

Most of the patents applied for by ABB in 2019 are geared towards increased sustainability by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy and operations efficiency.

Nearly 60% of ABB’s global revenues already come from solutions that protect the environment and combat global warming. On-going R&D will support ABB’s efforts to increase this percentage in 2020.

Bazmi Husain, ABB’s chief technology officer (www.new.abb.com), said: “Maintaining a focus on sustainable technologies in R&D is more important than ever.

“With our approach, we are paving the way for an increasingly autonomous and digital industry.

“Recent examples of forward-thinking innovations by ABB have helped make us the global technology leader for electric-vehicle charging infrastructure and for collaborative robots.”

Technology and innovation play a crucial role for ABB. In 2019, the company increased its investment in R&D by 4.4% to $1.2 billion (or 4.3% of annual revenues), and it employs around 7,000 researchers globally.