Number of patent and trademark applications filed by foreign applicants increasing in Germany

In 2018, the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) received 21,286 patent applications from abroad. This means a significant increase of about seven percent compared with the previous year. Also the number of trademark applications from abroad rose to 4863, i.e. just under six percent.

Most patent applications from abroad came from Japan (8013), the United States (6669) and the Republic of Korea (1313). Trademark applications were mostly filed by applicants from China (1564), the United States (528) and the United Kingdom (450).

In total, 67,895 patent applications were filed with the DPMA in 2018. Most patent applications were filed in the fields of transportation (12273), electric machines, electric devices and electric energy (7420), machine elements (5872), measurement technology (4979) as well as motors, pumps and turbines (4274).

A significant rose of about 26,7 % in filing numbers took place in the fields of computer implemented inventions and artificial intelligence. The number of patent applications from automotive industry continued to increase further. Six car manufacturers and three suppliers are among the top ten applicants.

The total number of utility model applications decreased by 7,4 percent to 12311. The DPMA further received in total 42670 single designs, that is a decrease in 8,7 percent compared with the previous year.

Seppo Laine Oy is also active in filing of Intellectual Property Rights in Germany and our patent attorney Teemu Kiviniemi will be happy to answer any of our client´s questions.