Book about the history of the Austrian Patent Office

The Austrian Patent Office is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year - a real reason to celebrate! But instead of publishing a commemorative publication, we wanted to take the opportunity to shed light on the eventful history of our office in a new way. For the first time, an independent, academic publication has been published that takes a comprehensive look at the history of the Patent Office. The authors Maria Wirth and Alexander Pinwinkler from the Association for the Scientific Reappraisal of Contemporary History at the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna shed light on the history of the Patent Office in their book “Behörde. Knowledge repository. Service facility. The Austrian Patent Office 1899-2024”, they shed light on the development of the Patent Office from the imperial era to the present day and allow contemporary witnesses to have their say. In particular, a clear and unsparing look is taken at the darkest era of the office: Thus, for the first time, the period of National Socialism and its effects on the Patent Office are also dealt with in full.

The book “Authority. Knowledge repository. Service facility. The Austrian Patent Office 124” has been published by StudienVerlag and is available in specialist shops (ISBN 978-3-7065-6423-6). It was financed by the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, the Austrian Patent Office and the Vienna Science, Research and Technology Fund.

You can find an excerpt from the history of the office and a small foretaste of the book under 125 years of the Patent Office.