Thuringia remains the land where inventors thrive: In terms of patent applications per capita, the Free State ranked first among the other eastern German states last year. As the German Patent and Trademark Office in Munich reports, Thuringia also outperformed some western German states.
In 2023, Thuringia recorded 24 patent applications per 100,000 inhabitants. This significantly surpassed its neighbor Saxony, which had 13. The gap was even wider compared to the other eastern German states, which recorded single-digit patent applications. Thuringia also outperformed western German states like Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein, which reported 15 and 13 applications per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively. Experts attribute Thuringia's remarkable performance to the fact that considerable expertise and potential in the optics and medical technology sectors have existed there for decades. Nationwide, companies, research institutions, and individual inventors filed a total of 38,469 patent applications in 2023, representing an increase of 3.4 percent compared to the previous year. (hw)
