Is Poland an Innovative Country?

The potential for innovativeness is difficult to measure, though many have attempted to do so. In order to look at Poland’s innovation potential, its current position and its opportunity to grow, compared with developing and developed countries, this study analysed the patent statistics of the Polish and European Patent Offices. Poland has been a member of the European Union for over a decade now. Therefore, we took into consideration the statistics for patent applications and grants for the last decade, up to the first quarter of 2016. The questions we wanted to answer concerned not only the technology fields that Poland patented its inventions in, but also the types of patent grantees and applicants. In order to determine why Poland is still considered to be only a moderate innovator by the Innovation Union Scoreboard, we also gathered information on Polish inventors abroad in 2015 and the first quarter of 2016, to see their number, technology fields, and types of patent grantees. Finally, we attempted to identify the main barriers that seem to inhibit Polish technology and innovation growth, despite significantly growing R&D intensities (up from 0.56 GDP and EUR 1,139 M in 2004 to 0.94 GDP and EUR 3,864 M in 2014).