Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Transfer

Shareholdings and spin-offs

At the reporting date, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft held equity investments in a total of 80 companies operating in a diverse range of sectors. The transfer of technology to industry formed the focus of activities at 53 of the companies in the investment portfolio, while a further 21 equity investments were of a strategic nature. Equity investments also include 6 affiliated companies. In 2024, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft invested a total of €5.7 million in the acquisition of equity interests in shareholdings. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft added one company to its investment portfolio and divested its shares in 4 companies. The total carrying amount of shareholdings (including shares in affiliated companies) increased to €36.0 million (previous year: €31.5 million). Income from the divestiture of shareholdings came to €2.0 million.

Spin-offs are an integral part of Fraunhofer’s strategy for exploiting its industrial property rights. In individual cases, Fraunhofer takes a minority share in the spin-off under company law as part of its technology transfer activities. In 2024, Fraunhofer Venture provided support to 68 new spin-off projects. Across Fraunhofer as a whole, 21 new spin-offs were established.

Fraunhofer has set itself the goal of increasing not only the number of spin-offs but also their proportional contribution to overall industrial revenue. Fraunhofer’s innovation hub AHEAD offers a package of targeted entrepreneurship measures and programs to help achieve this. The Fraunhofer AHEAD program takes on and provides funding to around 60 new teams each year. Intensive workshops and coaching sessions are provided to teach entrepreneurship. Fraunhofer AHEAD offers a networking platform for early-phase spin-off and licensing projects with the national entrepreneurship ecosystem. As well as the general AHEAD program, there are also specialized tracks in the fields of Sustainable Development Goals and life sciences.

Patent applications claiming rights of priority 2019 - 2023

Exploitation of intellectual property rights

Fraunhofer has a focused and targeted IP strategy that concentrates on securing long-term patents for inventions with high potential for exploitation. This approach helps to ensure the optimum use of time and financial resources. In 2024, the Fraunhofer institutes registered 507 inventions. To ensure the best possible support for the inventive step, the Patents department has developed an e-learning program to facilitate the transfer of knowledge related to inventions and patenting, which will soon be available to all researchers in the Fraunhofer- Gesellschaft. In 2024, 439 patent applications claiming rights of priority were filed. The number of active patent families remains at the same level as the previous year at 7,081.

The institutes are focusing still more on the cost aspect of intellectual property rights and are tailoring their decisions on the registration of patents to their IP strategy. As a result, the patent portfolios are being streamlined and optimized for efficiency. Fraunhofer is also continuing to actively pursue the exploitation of intellectual property rights by preparing patent portfolios and offering them to selected businesses for licensing or, in specific cases, for sale. This strategy ensures that valuable inventions are used effectively, while also providing new opportunities for collaboration and innovation.

In general, Fraunhofer generates revenue from the com­mercial exploitation of intellectual property rights by concluding licensing agreements. In addition, IP can also be contributed to patent pools or exploited through the sale of IP. The most successful of these pools consist of patents for audio and video encoding. In conjunction with other parties from different countries that hold patents that are relevant to standards, Fraunhofer uses various patent pools to issue licenses on a worldwide basis. The income from these pools is reinvested in pre-competitive research, thereby helping strengthen Germany’s position as a research hub for the long term. Revenue from the licensing and sale of IP amounted to approximately €164 million.

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