Inhalt
Statistics around patents, trademarks and Co.
Number of the month: Over five million programme lines
The electronic case file for patents and utility models was launched about ten years ago. Since then, we have been able to process patent and utility model applications fully electronically from receipt at the DPMA to publication. The complexity of the DPMApatente/gebrauchsmuster system is immense. More than five million program lines (corresponding to about 120,000 closely printed pages of paper) have to be maintained and kept consistent.
More numbers of the month
More than eight out of ten national patents were filed online at the DPMA in 2020: Thus, the online share of national patent applications was 86.9 per cent.
Annual report 2020, pages 52 and 53
Since the first edition in 1966, a total of 305 684 young people have taken part in the "Jugend forscht" competition. This year alone, there were 8,998 participants. Now the 2021 prize winners have also been chosen: Federal Education Minister Anja Karliczek honoured the best MINT talents last weekend at an online award ceremony.
"Jugend forscht"
What about patent applications in the field of digitalisation? According to a recent DPMA analysis, many areas are recording increasing numbers. For example, the number of published applications with effect for Germany in digital communication technology (+ 91.1 per cent) and in computer technology (+ 74.7 per cent) has increased rapidly in the past ten years.
Press release of 30 March 2021
On International Women's Day, we congratulate not only the 221 female patent examiners currently working at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA), but all women and girls. 221 female patent examiners, that is about 20 percent of the total number of patent examiners. We have set ourselves the goal to significantly increase the share of female examiners and to recruit even more qualified female scientists and engineers.
Carrer pages
Product and brand piracy causes billions of euros in damage in the German mechanical engineering industry alone, and this damage has grown even more in recent years. According to the VDMA study "Product Piracy 2020", the annual damage has now grown to 7.6 billion euros.
Product counterfeiting in the consumer goods sector is also denounced by "Aktion Plagiaurius e.V.", which annually awards a negative prize to manufacturers and retailers of particularly brazen plagiarisms and one-to-one copies.
Aktion Plagiaurius e.V.
At the turn of the year, version 2021.01 of the International Patent Classification (IPC) came into force. Approximately 100 positions were deleted, but almost 1,000 new positions were added. The IPC now consists of 76,422 subdivisions.
The most important changes at a glance: IPC revisions
Picture 1: iStock.com/gopixa, other pictures: DPMA
Last updated: 27 July 2021
