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Every 7th patent has a ‘migration background’

Important contribution to Germany's innovative strength

Qualified migration makes an indispensable contribution to Germany's innovative strength: At least 14 percent of all patent applications developed in this country can now be traced back to inventors with foreign roots. This is the result of a study by the ‘Institute of German Economy’ (externer Link Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft, IW).

The institute evaluated all patent applications between 1994 and 2022 that seek protection for Germany or beyond. A module was used to evaluate the approximately 45,000 different first names of all inventors residing in Germany. This makes it possible to determine ‘with a high degree of probability the roots of the person in question,’ according to the IW.

Proportion of women twice as high

On average, 4.7 per cent of all patents registered in Germany between 2000 and 2022 were filed by women. According to the IW study, when broken down by language area, female inventors from foreign language areas account for 8.5 per cent of all inventors, almost twice as many as female inventors from German-speaking areas. Specifically, the proportion of female inventors is higher in all other language areas than in Germany – especially in Eastern European language areas. Overall, the proportion of female inventors among all patents produced in Germany has risen significantly from 3.7 per cent in 2000 to 6.0 per cent most recently – and skilled migration is making innovation in this country even more female-dominated.

While inventors with foreign roots accounted for 4.9 per cent of all patent applications in 2000, this figure has now risen to 14.0 per cent (as of 2022) thanks to a steady increase. Currently, one in seven patent applications filed in Germany originates from inventors with foreign roots.

While the overall level of patent applications tended to stagnate during the analysis period, ‘substantial structural shifts towards inventors with foreign roots have taken place,’ according to the IW.

The contribution to patent activity by inventors from the Indian-speaking world in Germany has developed particularly dynamically. The corresponding patent applications increased more than twelvefold between 2000 and 2022, and their share of all patent applications also increased twelvefold, from 0.1 per cent to 1.2 per cent. The comparatively high proportion of female inventors (10.3 per cent) is also noteworthy.

Germany has thus laid the necessary foundation for the innovative successes of Indian inventors through its success in attracting skilled immigrants, which is supported by initiatives such as ‘Make it in Germany’.


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Last updated: 15 October 2025