Companies and inventors from around the world, including Romania, filed 199,264 patent applications with the European Patent Office (EPO) last year, with the majority in the area of information technology, according to the 2024 Patent Index, published on Tuesday.According to an EPO press release, Romania submitted 63 applications for European patents (+50% compared to 2023), with the main areas being medical technology (11 applications) and IT-related areas, including information technology and IT methods for management (8). The strongest Romanian applicant was, for the second consecutive year, "Stefan cel Mare" University of Suceava.Of the total applications submitted to the EPO in 2024, computer technology, which includes areas of AI such as machine learning and pattern recognition, was the leading field for the first time, with 16 815 patent applications in 2024. Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy posted the strongest growth last year (+8.9% on 2023), driven by advances in clean energy technologies, particularly battery innovation (+24.0%).The Unitary Patent system launched in 2023 continues to gain momentum, offering innovators simpler and more accessible patent protection across 18 EU member states with a single request to the EPO. Romania will join this system starting September 1, 2024, meaning that from that date, all European patents with unitary effect will automatically cover Romania as well.According to last year's centralised data, unitary protection was requested for 25.6% of all European patents granted by the EPO in 2024, totalling over 28,000 requests - a 53% increase compared to 2023 (18,300 requests). Patentees from EPO member states had the highest uptake rate, with 36.5% of their European patents transformed into Unitary PatentsFor Romania, the acceptance rate was 52.6%, while for other regions, it was lower: South Korea (18.9%), China (17.9%), the USA (16%) and Japan (7.9%).
Romania’s average net wage increased by 9.8% y/y to RON 5,457 (EUR 1,097) in the first quarter of 2025, according to data published by the statistics office INS. In real terms, the annual growth rate was 4.8% – significant in absolute terms but the weakest in seven quarters. The net wage in Romania leaped up […]
The European Commission could trigger the formal procedure of temporarily suspending European funds for Romania, including money from the Resilience Facility, in June, according to sources consulted by G4media.ro. The...
Hollywood actor Sebastian Stan and swimming champion David Popovici, two of Romania’s most prominent international figures, have called on Romanians to vote in Sunday’s presidential runoff, where independent candidate and Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan faces George Simion, the leader of the far-right party AUR. Sebastian Stan, who won a Golden Globe for...
Exim Banca Romaneasca diversifies its product portfolio and launches the Mastercard World card in EURO, a tool that enhances the payment experience for people who travel or work abroad, offering premium advantages, benefits, and rewards. The new EURO card from Exim Banca Romaneasca has as its main advantage the reduction of costs associated with transactions...
A report by cybersecurity company Refute uncovered a large-scale international influence operation targeting Romanian diaspora voters on TikTok ahead of the second round of Romania’s presidential elections on May 18. The report identifies approximately 32,500 TikTok videos containing slogans promoting the populist candidate George Simion and former candidate Călin Georgescu. Many of these videos are […]
Romania's gross domestic product (GDP) remained largely unchanged in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the previous quarter, according to flash estimates published on May 15 by the National Institute of Statistics (INS). The economy recorded a growth of 0.2% in gross series and 0.5% in seasonally adjusted series compared to the same quarter of […]
