Yesterday the German patent and brand office (DPMA) in Munich published the »Patentatlas 2006«. This document informs about how innovative the several regions of Germany were in the period from 2000 to 2005. In this context applications for patents were classified into patents applied for at regional and district levels, their technical background as well as other categories. The findings: leading are the two German southern federal states of Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria. At the regional level the leading position is held by Stuttgart (with 10.7% of all patent applications in 2005) followed by the Munich area (8,6%). Third came Dusseldorf with 3.7%.
According to patent experts the patent strongholds in Germany are the regions of Stuttgart, Munich as well as the Rhine-Main and the Rhine-Ruhr regions. Patent activities are least developed in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with 11.5 patents for each 100.000 inhabitants and in Saxony-Anhalt with 12.2 patents. In general the north of Germany is less active in the field of patents, even though there are some strongholds in the Hamburg, Hannover, Braunschweig and Berlin areas.
In terms of industrial sectors the patent leader is car engineering with 11.9% followed by electrical engineering (9.5%). At a regional level patents relating to electrical engineering are most frequent in Saxony, patents relating to chemistry in Rhineland-Palatinate, medical patents in the Hamburg region, in Lower Saxony patents for applications in car engineering and biotech patents in the Munich area.
According to the patent office, data on patents are good indicators for application-orientated research and development. The new data and results of analysis are important factors for innovative decision making. Furthermore, regional data may also serve as an indicator for the effect of political measures taken. 