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Munich (dpa) - The corona pandemic is inhibiting the inventive spirit in companies.

The German Patent and Trademark Office reported on Friday a significant decrease in patent applications of almost eight percent in the past year.

A total of 62,105 inventions were registered for patents, 5327 fewer than in 2019. According to the Munich federal authority, there were similar declines in other patent offices in large industrialized countries such as Japan and the USA.

The decline in auto technology and other branches of industry such as mechanical engineering is noticeable.

In the “Transport” area - which is traditionally at the top of the patent statistics - registrations fell by 16.6 percent to 10,758.

However, there was an increase in connection with electric vehicles, such as batteries and fuel cells.

The three companies with the most registrations still belong to the automotive industry: The suppliers Bosch and Schaeffler came in first and second, followed by BMW.

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There was also a large minus of 18 percent for machine elements, a smaller one of just under three percent for electrical machines, devices and energy.

In other areas, the pandemic clearly promoted the willingness to innovate.

In medical technology there was reportedly 2883 registrations, an increase of over ten percent.

In the technology classes, which include face masks and protective clothing, registrations increased fivefold.

"The pandemic has led to extensive economic damage, but has strongly stimulated economic activity in some special sectors," said Cornelia Rudloff-Schäffer, head of the authorities.

Companies have been ahead in patent applications for decades, while scientists and individual inventors play a much smaller role.

Not all registrations at the patent office are German inventions: last year almost 20,000 registrations came from abroad, mostly from companies that want to have their inventions protected in Germany.

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And when it comes to patent statistics, Germany is not the same as Germany.

The immense differences within Germany are still noticeable.

A good 40 percent of all patent applications - over 26,000 in total - came from just two federal states: Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.

In contrast, only 2528 new inventions were registered from the five East German states and Berlin together.

The most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia also ranked far behind the two southern states with 6532 registrations.

In contrast to the inventions, there was a boom in new brands.

The patent office counted 89,438 trademark applications, over 10,000 more than in 2019 and more than in two decades.

Rudloff-Schäffer sees this as a consequence of the boom in online trading.

The Corona crisis has shifted many trading activities to the Internet.

"In order to be successful with this, many online providers see the need to have their products and services protected by concise brands - also because of the corresponding requirements of large trading platforms," ​​said the President of the Patent Office.

There was also a clear corona-related increase in the brands for medical devices, pharmaceutical products and disinfection.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210305-99-697231 / 2