Scientific Essay from the year 2015 in the subject Economics - Innovation economics, grade: 2,0, University of Applied Sciences Constanze, language: English, abstract: This research analyses whether German Machine Tool Builders headquartered in industrial clusters differ in patent activities from companies outside these regions. Therefore this paper provides standard references as well as current research activities in the field of cluster processes and examines if the theoretical approaches and characteristics also apply on a sample of 112 German Machine Tool Builders. Based on the German Patent and Trademark Office database the results show that cluster based and non-cluster based firms´ patent activities differ just insignificantly regarding the patent and utility model applications per year and per 1 Mio. € revenue. This may come from the decreasing importance of spatial proximity as knowledge seems to be well codified and therefore easily transferable in a mature stage of the industry lifecycle.