(Yicai Global) March 13 -- Munich-headquartered industrial manufacturing giant Siemens has outstripped Chinese telecoms equipment behemoth Huawei Technologies as the largest patent applier in Europe. 

Siemens submitted 2,493 applications to protect its intellectual copyright last year, while Huawei's tally was eight less, an annual report released by the European Patent Office yesterday shows. The Shenzhen-based firm ranked first in 2017.

The IP bureau received over 174,300 applications last year, up almost 5 percent annually, reaching a historic peak. US-based companies were most active in applying, followed by those in Germany, Japan, France and China.

Chinese firms asked for IP protection for over 9,400 inventions, which was about 9 percent more than in 2017. China is very active in terms of applying and the nation is continuously expanding its technical methods, Rainer Osterwalder, a spokesperson of the bureau said in the report. 

Healthcare was the most popular sector among the applicants, while its subcategories of life sciences, drugs and biotechnologies are the fastest-growing ones within this sector, the report shows. 

Other firms that are among the top 10 are Samsung, LG Electronics, US-headquartered United Technologies, Amsterdam's Royal Philips Electronics, Qualcomm, Stockholm-based Ericsson, General Electric and Germany's Robert Bosch.

Editor: Emmi Laine