Patent and trademark filings rise in Germany
Germany’s IP office, the Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA), handled more patent and trademark applications last year than in 2012, according to published data.
Patent applications jumped by 2.9 percent to reach 63,158, while brand owners registered 60,161 trademarks – a 0.5 percent increase.
Representing a 22.1 percent leap, 14,083 patents were granted by the DPMA last year. Around 8,000 patents were rejected and 11,000 withdrawn.
But the number of granted trademarks fell from nearly 47,000 to about 43,500, which was a 5.6 percent decrease.
In a translated statement, the DPMA president Cornelia Rudloff-Schäffer said Germany can be “very proud” of its inventors and that its engineers and scientists can secure the country’s “future in the global economy”.
Electronics company Bosch topped the patent filings with 4,144, Schaeffler Technologies, which makes ball bearings, took second (2,100) and car company Daimler came third (1,854). Accounting for 75 percent of patent applications, German companies dominated, but the foreign share of 25 percent represented a 4.6 percent rise from 2012.
Leading the trademark filings was pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim (138), followed by telecoms groups Deutsche Telekom (84) and Vodafone (67). Nearly 800,000 trademarks are now registered at the DPMA.
Birgit Clark, senior trademark associate at Baker & McKenzie LLP in London and a qualified German attorney, said the trademark application numbers are reliably stable
“This is impressive bearing in mind that they have competition from Community trademarks and international marks. It also shows that national trademark registrations can still be attractive, even in times of globalisation.
“What is even more impressive is that that there is a 22.1 percent increase in granted patents, as well as a 2.9 percent rise in new applications ... These trends reflects how German innovation and engineering are driving the economy,” she said.
The number of designs also increased – to 55,829, or by 1.3 percent – as well as utility models, which totalled nearly 15,500 (a 0.4 percent increase).
Last year, more than 250,000 patents were filed at the European Patent Office (EPO), with around 35 percent coming from the EPO’s 38 member states. Germany, Europe’s top filer, accounted for about 12 percent of that share but its proportion dropped by more than six percent from 2012.
The DPMA also reported that its 2013 revenue totalled €340.7 million ($470 million), while its costs amounted to €268.2 million. Across its three locations in Munich, Jena and Berlin, it employed just over 2,500 people.
