As a government authority committed to shaping a better future through innovation, we recognize our responsibility to make our daily operations more sustainable. This is something we continuously work on.

As part of our office renovation, completed in 2024, we consciously opted for downsizing and now operate in a reduced office space powered entirely by renewable energy. Naturally, we also switched our entire lighting to LED technology.

Our employees play a crucial role in our sustainability efforts: 70 % of our staff commute by public transport, and 8 % even cycle to work.

Beyond our office walls, we strive to set a positive example. All major events hosted by the Patent Office proudly carry the ‘Green Event’ label.

And last but not least: We are a paperless office. The Patent Office’s entire range of services is 100 % digital, and we continue to reduce internal paper consumption – our records management is now predominantly digital.

With our ‘Brands Pop-Up’ talk series, we continued our Austria-wide tour, making a stop in Linz in June 2024. More than 120 creative minds attended for discussions on branding, design, and the creative economy. Experts shared dos and don’ts, success stories, and failuresfrom the worlds of AI, digital communication, and rebranding.

Our IP Academy also saw strong participation in 2024: Across around 100 seminars, workshops, and training sessions, we welcomed almost 3,000 participants. As always, all events were free of charge and could be attended online, some of them also in person.

One highlight we are particularly proud of: Our IP Academy launched a new discussion format, ‘Masters of IP’, bringing current and relevant intellectual property topics to the stage.

Diversity is another key issue for us – because diversity fuels creativity and, in many cases, makes it possible in the first place. In this spirit, we invited the well-known drag queen Candy Licious to give a talk at our office for Pride Month, helping to raise awareness internally. The turnout was overwhelming.

An anniversary is always a good opportunity to take a critical look at the past. We did so in collaboration with historians Maria Wirth and Alexander Pinwinkler. For the first time since our founding, an independent, scholarly and comprehensive publication now examines the history of the Austrian Patent Office – including, for the first time, its darkest chapter: the Nazi era.

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© ÖPA/Viktoria Gassner
© ÖPA/Christina Nettek
© ÖPA/Viktoria Gassner}

In 2025, together with our Ministry, we will present the National Award for Patents for the fifth time. Alongside the categories ‘Best Patent’ and ‘Best Trademark’, this year will also see the introduction of a new special award: the ‘Matilda’. This will honour an organisation that makes an outstanding contribution to empowering innovative women and drives structural change. 

On a legislative front, 2025 will see the revision of the Patent Act. With various modernisation measures, we aim to accelerate and simplify procedures while taking further steps towards harmonisation within the European framework. Additionally, this reform will lay the legal foundation for protecting geographical indications for artisanal and industrial products.

With regard to unitary patents, small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, are making use of this new protection option, which applies in up to 18 countries. As of 1 January 2025, the local division of the Unified Patent Court is now housed within the Austrian Patent Office. This means that legal disputes concerning unitary patents – with effects in all participating states – can now be resolved in Austria, with German as the language of proceedings. We are delighted that this important institution has now found its home on Dresdner Strasse.