IP Contribution

Contribution of intellectual property rights intensive industries in the European Union

EUIPO, through the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights and with partners including the Community Plant Variety Office and the European Patent Office have carried out several EU-wide studies on the contribution of intellectual property rights (IPRs) to the EU economy.

These studies aim to provide evidence to support policymaking and form a basis for raising awareness among Europe’s citizens about the value of intellectual property.

Impact of the Community Plant Variety Rights system on the EU economy and the environment

To help achieve the goals of the European Green Deal, CO2 emissions from agriculture must be reduced in the coming years. Other environmental considerations call for less intensive use of pesticides, fertiliser and other chemicals, while at the same time maintaining and increasing food production to cope with the demands of the European and global markets. This multifaceted challenge can only be met by creating new varieties of crops that use fewer resources while enhancing productivity of European agriculture.

And given the climate change is already happening, these new varieties must also be able to cope with the changing climate. A great deal of innovation in breeding of plant varieties is therefore required. Such innovation is underpinned by the Community Plant Variety Rights (CPVR) on the EU level, managed by the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO). This report, a joint publication of the EUIPO and the CPVO, highlights the very significant contributions made by the CPVR system to the economy and to the environment during the past 25 years, thereby supporting the EU’s economic and environmental goals.

Intellectual property right-intensive industries and economic performance in Latin American countries

This paper presents a comparison of the results of five studies from IP Key and IP offices in Latin American countries (Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay). These studies follow a similar methodology to measure the contribution of IPR-intensive industries in a comparable way with the EUIPO/EPO and USPTO studies. They provide an assessment of the combined contribution to the economies of these Latin American countries from industries that make intensive use of the different types of intellectual property rights (IPR). The study confirms the economic benefits of trade marks, designs, patents, and copyright.

Intellectual property rights and firm performance in Europe: an economic analysis

This study compares the economic performance of companies that own IPRs with those that do not. The IP rights included in this study are patents, trade marks and designs — both European and national rights.

How was the firm-level study conducted?

The IPRs included in the study are patents, trade marks and designs (and any combination of the three). The study includes both European and national IPRs, which improves the available data greatly, and provides a complete view of each company's IPR portfolio — both European and national rights.

The data on each company's IPR portfolio was matched with information contained in ORBIS, a commercial database. This database provides financial and other information on millions of European companies, collected from the filings and accounting reports made by the companies in the commercial registers of all EU Member States. The study was carried out in collaboration with the European Patent Office. Compared to the 2015 study, important improvements in the methodology have been made, and while the earlier study was based on data for 12 Member States, the new edition includes data for all 27 Member States and the United Kingdom.

Intellectual property rights intensive industries and economic performance in the European Union (2022)

This study is the latest update in a series which provides an assessment of the combined contribution to the economies of the EU from industries that make intensive use of the different types of intellectual property rights (IPR). The study confirms the economic benefits for Europe of trade marks, designs, patents, copyright, geographical indications (GI) and plant variety rights.

How was the industry-level study conducted?

In order to ensure comparability between the four studies published to date, the same methodology has been used as before. However, a number of improvements have been made as regards the underlying data and the methodology. In particular, the matching exercise used to identify IPR-intensive industries has been updated to ensure that the selection reflects recent developments. In addition, to complement the data for the EU member states, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom have been included in this study.