The proportion of women among inventors is gradually increasing. In 2023, women accounted for 28% of the developers of inventions filed with the Polish Patent Office, an increase of 5% compared to 2019. “Chemistry and biotechnology are the fields in which women patent the most”, reported the Polish Patent Office.

Women most often lead in patenting inventions in the fields of chemistry of high-grade organic compounds (17%), chemistry of basic materials (9%) and biotechnology (9%). Geographically, the highest number of female inventors is found in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship (215) and the Lubelskie Voivodeship (204).

The most active female inventors who participated in the development of inventions filed with the Patent Office last year were Grażyna Żak (29 inventions), Elżbieta Szałkowska (19) from the Oil and Gas Institute and Izabela Major (19) from Częstochowa University of Technology.

The Polish Patent Office recalled that Dr Marta Karczewicz is an outstanding example of a Polish inventor and scientist. Her name has been mentioned in more than 400 patent applications, of which almost 130 have been granted European patents. She is a finalist for the European Inventor Award 2019, the most important competition for inventors worldwide, and the author of many breakthrough inventions related to image compression. Thanks to her, we watch movies on Netflix, use Skype or Zoom.

Women are underrepresented in the design profession and in the creation of design. Only one in four industrial designers in the EU is a woman (24%), as is the case in Poland – 25%.

Women in Poland most often design office supplies and equipment, furniture and graphic symbols and logos, and least often photographic, film and optical devices, printing and office machinery, fire and rescue equipment and appliances, and tobacco products and smoking equipment.

Adrian Andrzejewski