The facts about patents

TU Delft manages around 200 patents, or more accurately ‘patents families’. Strictly speaking, the university has even more patents because the same invention can be protected by separate patents in different countries.  

Every year, around a hundred TU Delft scientists report new inventions to the Valorisation Centre. There were 103 in 2019. The Faculty of Applied Sciences reports the most inventions. Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) and Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (3mE) share second place.

In around half of cases, the Innovation & Impact Centre applies for a patent. The application is approved by a patent office in around three-quarters of cases. 

That is not a bad score. In the Reuters’ world ranking of the most innovative universities, TU Delft is placed 60th. Only two other Dutch universities feature in the Top 100, Leiden University (71st) and Utrecht University (93th).

The reason why the number of patents is not rising continuously is because they eventually expire and the university sells several patents every year.