Between 2013 and 2023, there was a significant decrease in the number of patent applications filed by domestic entities, from 983 to 465. Eva Myšková Skarlandtová from the Statistics Department of the Czech Statistical Office noted that the most significant decline can be observed in universities, which experienced a decrease to 66 patent applications in 2023 compared to 279 in 2013.
In 2023, businesses predominated among patent holders, receiving 240 patents, representing more than half of the total of 454. Public universities followed with 121 patents, while individuals and public research institutions obtained 53 and 28 patents, respectively.
The company Škoda Auto a.s. held the most valid patents by the end of 2023 (142), with the Czech Technical University in Prague representing the largest representation among universities with 198 patents, and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences holding 27 patents.
"Patent activity of an academic institution depends on several factors. One of them is certainly the scientific field because in many fields, patents are not actually granted, while in others, such as drug development, a patent is a basic condition for further commercialization. Other factors include the quality of research - a fundamental basis for inventions - and then, of course, functional mechanisms for technology transfer, which capture the invention and take care of intellectual property issues. And essential conditions are available financial resources. At the IOCB AV CR, we are fortunate that all these conditions are met," says Martin Fusek, director of IOCB Tech, a subsidiary of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, adding that patent protection is important, but the number of patents itself is not as important as their quality, or rather the quality of ideas.
In 2023, a total of 5,433 patents were granted or validated through the Czech Industrial Property Office, with foreign entities obtaining the majority (4,979). Karel Eliáš from the Statistics Department of the Czech Statistical Office emphasized that Germany had the most patents validated in the Czech Republic (1,340), and the United States ranked second with 771 patents. In 2023, patents for the Czech Republic were validated from a total of 63 countries.
In 2022, Czech entities filed a total of 1,085 patent applications with 38 foreign or multinational patent offices, with this number stagnating in recent years. The highest number of applications (477) was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, while 220 applications were filed with the European Patent Office (EPO). Compared to Austria, where 2,383 applications were filed with the EPO in 2022, this represents roughly a tenth. Czech inventions thus represent only a small fraction of the total number of applications filed with the EPO.