EU Study Reveals Positive Links Between Intellectual Property Ownership and Economic Performance

Happy Friday everybody!

I just thought I would share an interesting article I came across this evening that briefs a recent report published by the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

In 2015, a EUIPO study found that companies in the European Union with at least one patent, trademark or registered design “record higher revenues per employee and pay higher wages than companies without any intellectual property rights.” This report delves deeper into this finding by analyzing over 127,000 firms in the 27 European Union member states and the United Kingdom. What they found was a “virtuous cycle” between intellectual property and increased economic growth. To quote directly from the report:

The highest revenue-per-employee gains are linked to bundles of trademarks, with performance premiums of 63% for trade mark and design owners, and 60% for combined patent, trade mark and design owners. Firms that own IPRs also pay on average 19% higher wages than firms that do not.

What I think is particularly important about this study is that it underscores the importance of making the registration and protection of IP rights easily available to small and medium-sized firms, who, in the words of the report’s commissioner, “stand to benefit the most from owning intellectually property.”