Düsseldorf, October 9, 2023 – Germany has ranked highly again in a comparison of the world’s most innovative economies. In the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) most recent Global Innovation Index, the Federal Republic of Germany has come in eighth place for the second consecutive year. The top spots in the global ranking are occupied by Switzerland, Sweden, and the USA.
Among the strengths of the German innovation system WIPO includes the very high number of patent families, the number of registered product designs, and the value of the most important trademarks. WIPO also positively highlights the number of scientific papers that are frequently cited in prestigious journals. What’s more, German companies invest comparatively heavily in research and development.
In addition to the strengths of the German innovation system, however, WIPO also lists its weaknesses, for instance in education spending and in fundamental areas of digitalization. “This presents a major risk for our future innovative ability,” said Eva Schewior, President of the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA), when the study was published on September 27. But the DPMA also sees the results of the ranking as a positive signal for the German economy: “The Global Innovation Index once again shows that Germany has a stable, powerful, and highly efficient innovation system. It is underpinned by strong and innovative companies on the one hand and reliable state institutions on the other”.
Cohausz & Florack (C&F) is also optimistic in view of the study results: “The spirit of innovation in Germany remains high in many key fields of technology,” says Gottfried Schüll, patent attorney and partner at C&F. “This is partly thanks to the high quality of the IP system in this country, which emboldens companies to be inventive”.
For the Global Innovation Index, WIPO analyzed the innovative strength of a total of 132 economies based on 80 indicators.
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