The Role of Foreign Inventors in Finnish Technological Development

The data on Finnish patent applications filed at the European Patent Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office between 2011 and 2021 indicate that foreign inventors and international collaboration have been crucial to Finland’s technological development. Throughout the 2010s, Finnish patent applications have included inventors from 68 different countries, and the share of foreign inventors has steadily increased over this period. In 2021, 60 percent of the patent applications filed involved foreign inventors, with over one-fifth featuring collaboration between both Finnish and foreign inventors. The United States has been Finland’s most important innovation partner, while Germany, Sweden, and China have also played significant roles in the development of patented ideas. When analyzed by technology sector, foreign and internationally based inventors are particularly prominent in ICT-related patent applications. Immigrant inventors contributed to more than one-fifth of ICT patent filings during the review period. In other technology sectors, the involvement of immigrant inventors has also grown, with their share of USPTO patent applications rising from 9 percent to 17 percent, and from 18 percent to 23 percent in EPO applications.