Annual Reports

How are patent filing trends evolving in the field of quantum technologies? What does effective trademark protection look like in an increasingly digital world? And how do design rights differ from copyright?
The DPMA Annual Report 2025 explores these and other topics, offering insights into emerging technologies and the intellectual property rights that help protect innovation—including patents, utility models, trademarks and designs. The report also presents the latest statistics, along with a behind-the-scenes look at the DPMA. Highlights include DPMAimpuls, our event series bringing together the DPMA and the business community, as well as our new office building. In an interview, DPMA President Eva Schewior discusses the vital role that industrial property rights play in Germany's economy and explains how the DPMA is working to make its services even more user-friendly in the years ahead.

• Digital Annual Report for 2025

Technology trends in solar technology, wind power and batteries, application rankings of the German Länder and interesting interviews and perspectives: In addition to innovation trends and statistics, the DPMA Annual Report 2024 again offers a lot of useful information on patents, utility models, trade marks and designs. There are also inside views from the DPMA - for example, on our Technology Day, career opportunities and the work of our social media team. And our partners also have their say: The patent information centers report on their work with small and medium-sized enterprises - and the Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovations explains the immense importance of industrial property rights for the economic success of groundbreaking new technologies.

• Digital Annual Report for 2024

How are patent applications concerning digital technologies and renewable energy sources developing? What are the strategic challenges for the German Patent and Trade Mark Office? And how do we raise the awareness of small and medium-sized enterprises about the protection of intellectual property? In addition to current technology trends and statistical data on patents, utility models, trade marks and designs, the DPMA Annual Report 2023 also contains a lot of useful tips and interesting information on other topics.
Published in HTML format, our annual report is reader-friendly and optimised for mobile use. If you need the report for your records, a working version can soon be downloaded as a PDF file from its start page.

• Digital annual report 2023

How innovative are German companies in key digital technologies? How does the DPMA support innovative companies in protecting their intellectual property? And what is the connection between the Beatles and the German village of Bubenreuth? In addition to current technology trends, the DPMA Annual Report 2022 provides statistics, exciting stories and useful information on the industrial property rights patent, utility model, trade mark and design.

• Digital annual report 2022
• Annual Report 2022 (not accessible) [PDF, 7 MB]

In addition to current technology trends, the DPMA Annual Report 2021 once again contains lots of statistics. The report also tells exciting stories - from the 125th anniversary of the death of aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal to trademarks related to Mickey Mouse. We also offer a new digital version: reader-friendly, multimedia and ideal for mobile devices. The PDF version will follow soon.

• Digital annual report 2021
• Annual report 2021 (not accessible) [PDF, 8 MB]

In the Annual Report 2020, the DPMA provides information on current trends concerning the industrial property rights patent, utility model, trade mark and design. "The effects of the Corona pandemic have also shaped the past year for us," said DPMA President Cornelia Rudloff-Schäffer. "However, in addition to unpleasant consequences, there are also bright spots that make me optimistic." For the first time, we are offering the Annual Report 2020 as an interactive digital version in addition to the print version.

• Digital annual report 2020
• Annual Report 2020 (not accessible) [PDF, 6 MB]