I saw this interesting post on Green Light about a presentation at the recent Copenmind conference by two European Patent Office (EPO) patent examiners about clean tech patent filings in the EPO. 

The examiners noted that the two hottest areas for clean energy patent filing in Europe are fuel cells and wind power.  According to the presentation, about half of clean tech patent filings from 1998 to 2007 relate to fuel cell technology, with wind being the fast growing category, increasing by over 30% each year.

This is consistent with U.S. clean tech patents granted, as reported in the second quarter 2008 installment of the Clean Energy Patent Growth Index (see my previous post here). 

The bulk of the European wind technology innovation is coming out of Germany, which accounts for 39% of the EPO wind applications. 

The U.S. is second with 16% of the wind patent filings, and there’s plenty of room for wind technology companies to grow in the U.S. – according to the Green Light post, the U.S. gets only 1% of its power from wind.

• Previous Entry: Suntech Power Accuses Rival of Trademark Infringement, Asks Court to Nix Expo Booth
• Next Entry: Sony Takes a License for Camera-Mounted LED Technology