Entrepreneurship

Saxony Economic Development Corporation: Germany’s most patented universities – Saxony is ahead of the pack

August 23, 2024. Patent applications represent an important pillar of the university system. An evaluation of the patent database of the German Economic Institute (IW), which covers all universities and their affiliated institutions, shows which universities are particularly successful in this regard. Eastern German universities dominate in terms of efficiency. Measured by the number of students, universities in Saxony and Thuringia register by far the most patents.

Photo: IW Cologne

Universities: Number of patent applications

The Technical University of Dresden defends first place in the current ranking by a wide margin. The IW analyzed the number of patent applications from 2017 to 2021, during which time TU Dresden registered more than 280 patents. Behind TU Dresden, TU Munich with over 240 and RWTH Aachen University with more than 220 patent applications occupy 2nd and 3rd place in the ranking.

Universities: Patent applications in relation to the number of students

In terms of size-adjusted patent activity – specifically, patent applications in relation to the number of students (Federal Statistical Office, 2023) – the Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg is the clear leader with 23.6 patent applications per 1,000 students. In second place is the Hannover Medical School with 13.6 applications, followed by the Ilmenau University of Technology with 12.5. The TU Dresden achieves a value of 9.5 and thus also stands out as a top performer in relation to the number of students. On average, a patent-active German university produced 2.0 patent applications per 1,000 students in the period under review.

Federal states: patent applications in relation to the number of students

With a total performance of 5.1 patent applications per 1,000 students, the universities in Saxony and Thuringia more than double the national average (2.0). The higher education systems of these two federal states are therefore characterized by a particularly high level of efficiency in their patent activity.

About the study

The basis of the analysis is the totality of all patents that seek protection for Germany or beyond (e.g. via an application to the German Patent and Trade Mark Office, the European Patent Office or the World Intellectual Property Organization). To assess the innovative strength of the university sector, those patent applications are taken into account that were filed by a university as the first applicant. Co-applications are recorded fractionally, i.e. if a university applies for a patent jointly with a company, for example, half of this is attributed to the university, whereas if the university is the sole applicant, it is attributed in full. The total output of a university is made up of the patents for which it itself is the applicant and those of its affiliated institutions (affiliated institutes, university hospitals, transfer facilities, etc.). Due to the disclosure deadline for patent applications, 2021 is the current year of a complete year.

In order to minimize the influence of year-to-year fluctuations on the overall result, the aggregated patent applications for the years 2017 to 2021 were collected. In this analysis period…

… 165 German universities were patent-active in the sense that they were involved in at least one patent application.
… five of the patent-active universities were privately funded – with the result that state universities are responsible for 97 percent of all patent applications in the university system.
… 57 percent of the patent-active universities were universities of applied sciences, but only 13.5 percent of all patent applications are attributable to this type of university.
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