Inhalt
Statistics around patents, trademarks and Co.
Number of the month September: 77.5 percent of all registrations are submitted online
Almost eight out of ten industrial property rights were registered online at the DPMA in 2019. The highest online share was recorded by national patent applications with 86.4 percent, followed by national design applications with 85.5 percent. 72.5 percent of all national trademark applications were also filed electronically, compared to 59 percent for utility models. You can find more about online filing under Service > Electronic Filing.
The other figures of the month
This is the number of enquiries that reached the DPMA's customer service in 2019, up 7 percent on the previous year (154 000). More than half of them, namely 54 per cent, concerned trade marks - and the trend is rising. 21 per cent of all customers who contacted our 2019 Service had questions on patents. 9 percent asked about utility models, 6 percent about design. Among the other inquiries, historical topics increased sharply. More than half of the enquiries were made by telephone (53 percent); 41 percent contacted customer service by e-mail (incidentally, the latter is only useful for questions, since submissions on IP acts by e-mail are not legally effective!)
Customer Service
Digitisation has now found its way into almost all areas of daily life, industry and business. The steadily increasing number of patent applications illustrates the enormous importance of this area. Since 2013, the number of annual patent applications in the field of digitization has risen by 30.6 percent, from a total of 17,727 applications in 2013 to 23,143 applications in 2019. For more information, please refer to the (in German), page 9.
DPMA Annual Report 2019, page 10 (in German)
Our number of the month this time is dedicated to utility models. Like the patent, this protects a technical invention. However, while the examination and grant of a patent can take years, the utility model is usually entered in the register a few weeks after the application is filed. It thus offers fast protection for your invention. At the end of 2019, 76,919 effective utility models were registered with us.
Utility Models
"United in diversity" has been the motto of the European Union since 2000. It expresses that Europeans want to work together for peace and prosperity, and that at the same time the many different European languages, cultures and traditions enrich the entire continent. This includes, for example, regional specialities in agricultural products and foodstuffs. Who does not know them, the "Nürnberger Lebkuchen", "Spreewälder Gurken" or the "Prosciutto di Parma"? A total of 1 475 protected geographical indications are registered for this area, 91 of which are from Germany alone.
Indication of Geographical Origin
Unfortunately, this year we had to celebrate Easter a little differently than usual. The Easter Bunny was allowed - with due safety distance - to hide chocolate eggs or delicious sweets. By the way, confectionery and chocolate articles are to be found in trademark applications in goods class 30 of the Nice Classification. With the leading class 30, a total of 2,367 domestic trade mark applications were filed in 2019 - our number of the month April.
Nice Classification
March 8 is International Women's Day. Therefore, our number of the month of March is dedicated to women. At the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) there are currently 1,319 female staff members, i.e. 48 per cent of the total staff (Status: 31/12/2019). We congratulate them and all women on this year's International Women's Day, which continues to stand for the fight for equal rights in society.
Career pages (in German)
At the beginning of February, the "ambiente" will once again be held in Frankfurt, where exhibitors will present ideas, products and trends on the topics of "Dining" (table, kitchen and household goods), "Giving" (giving) and "Living" (living, furnishing and decorating). Reason for us to focus on the registered design. Most design applications at the DPMA come from the "living" sector. For example, the top product class for registered designs was the furniture sector with 14,877 counters.
Top 5 goods classes of registered designs (now with current figures from 2019)
At the turn of the year, version 2020.01 of the International Patent Classification (IPC) came into force. The IPC was given more than 1 100 new positions and now consists of 75 548 subdivisions. An overview of the most important changes can be found on our subpage "IPC Revisions".
The most important changes at a glance: IPC Revisions
Last updated: 20 October 2020
