Did you know ...

Did you know that Carl Zeiss is a regular at the patent office? Inventors have a reason to celebrate this coming Sunday: April 26th is the “Day of Intellectual Property.” Initiated nine years ago by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), this day not only draws attention to, but also has the objective of protecting inventions and intellectual property and emphasizing how important both of them are.

Why are inventions worth protecting? For breeding grounds of innovation such as Carl Zeiss, research and development is a very important skill. The company develops the products, solutions and technologies of tomorrow. Every day, 2000 employees, or 15 percent of the Carl Zeiss work force, strive to make this happen. This led to many new solutions last year, with patent applications submitted for more than 400 of them.

Carl Zeiss is not the only one headed to the patent office in Baden-Württemberg: the state submitted the second highest number of patent applications in 2008 after Bavaria. The European Patent Office counted 6,214 applications from the southwestern German state; 26,653 from all of Germany. A patent application is the best way to protect intellectual property against copycats. After all, no company can afford to invest time and money into research when others can simply copy its valuable ideas.

April 21, 2009