Editorial 1 Tribologie + Schmierungstechnik · volume 72 · issue 5/ 2025 DOI 10.24053/ TuS-2025-0024 According to a new study commissioned by the Bertelsmann Foundation Germany is a global leader in circular economy technologies. Between 2010 and 2024, companies and research institutions worldwide filed nearly 62,000 technological patents in the field of the circular economy, for example, for the recycling of metals and plastics or the production of chemical products from renewable raw materials. In this study for the first time global technological developments in this future-oriented field were evaluated. Germany accounts for nearly 17 percent of global patent applications during this period, with 10,700 patents. Only the United States performs better, with 14,000 patents. Japan ranks third globally with 8,600 patent applications. France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, as well as China and South Korea, follow. Germany's leading position is increasingly under pressure, as China, South Korea, and Japan are rapidly catching up. In recent years, these countries have demonstrated above-average growth in patenting innovations in the field of the circular economy. For example, in China, almost five times as many patents were successfully filed in 2021 as in 2010. South Korea and Japan also significantly outperformed Germany, with three and two times as many patents, respectively, in the same years. In 2021, only 1.3 times as many patents were registered in Germany as in 2010 - the lowest figure among the top-performing nations. However, the sheer number of patents is not the only indicator of how well Germany and other countries are technologically positioned for the circular economy; their quality and economic relevance are also crucial. As an indicator for patent quality, a study by Prognos AG, commissioned by the Bertelsmann Foundation, examined how frequently a country's patents are cited in subsequent patent applications, i.e., whether they are relevant for new innovation cycles. In this respect, Germany currently leads the way. German patents have been cited almost 15,000 times in the past 15 years. Japan follows in second place with 9,960 citations, practically tied with the United States (9,900 citations). Italy, France, and the United Kingdom follow at a considerable distance. South Korea (1,734) and China (1,386) lag even further behind. The study cites two examples of important innovation fields in the German economy. Battery technologies and recycling, and circular construction. Battery recycling is the only technology field considered in which the German share of global patents has recently increased. With 20 percent of global patents, Germany holds the highest market share in the technology field of the circular construction. It would be interesting to know how many patents and patent citations exist in the field of tribology with respect to circular economy. It is well known, that lubricants per se at the moment fall into categories of recycled, converted to energy, landfilled and unknown. Thus, trying to press lubricants into a circularity will be difficult. The focus should be on how much energy can be saved with optimized tribological systems, either by reducing friction in the use phase of a component or extending the life of it. The German Tribological Society (GfT) has published studies on sustainability where one can find that Tribology is everywhere. Your editor-in-chief Manfred Jungk Germany is a world leader in patent quality of Circular Economy Technologies