Protecting intellectual property rights is a crucial activity for a company. Over the years, intangible assets have become increasingly important, and their management has taken on a strategic character for the future of businesses.
But how much do they really influence business performance?
In January 2025, a study on this topic was published, conducted by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO), which provides an interesting snapshot of the diffusion and importance of intellectual property rights in the European business fabric.
The report, which builds on studies already conducted in previous years, presents the results of the analysis carried out considering the period from 2013 to 2023 on a representative sample of over 100,000 European companies from various sectors and from all member states of the European Union.
The analysis takes into account data relating to patents, trademarks, designs and models registered with the EPO, the EUIPO, and national and regional Intellectual Property (IP) offices in the EU.
Key Points of the EUIPO and EPO Study
In general, companies that own intellectual property rights generate 23.8% more revenue per employee than companies that do not have exclusive rights. In particular, patent-holding companies have a 28.7% higher revenue per employee, registered trademark-holding companies 23.3%, and design-holding companies 29.3%.
Very interesting data relates to the ownership of exclusive rights among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large enterprises.
Less than 10% of European SMEs own a patent, trademark, or design. The percentage, however, rises when examining large enterprises: those holding at least one type of intellectual property right represent 49.01%.
Going even more into detail and observing individual intellectual property rights, it is noted that only 1.1% of European SMEs own patents, while for large enterprises, the percentage rises to 12.3%.
SMEs owning trademarks are 9.2%, while for large enterprises, the percentage is 46.1%. Finally, SMEs owning designs are only 1.1%, while the ownership rate among large enterprises is 10.7%.
Despite the ownership rate being rather low among SMEs, SMEs holding intellectual property rights have a 44% higher income per employee than non-holding companies.
Sectors
The sector with the highest number of companies holding exclusive rights is that of information and communication (with 14.79%), followed by the manufacturing industry (14.21%).
In third position is the water supply, sewerage, waste management, and remediation activities sector (12%), and in fourth place is the professional, scientific, and technical activities sector (with a 10.7% share).
Conclusions
As emphasized in the report, the results of this analysis should not be interpreted as demonstrating a direct causal relationship between the ownership of intellectual property rights and better economic performance, as the latter can be influenced by multiple variables (such as company strategy).
Nevertheless, the report shows the importance that patents, trademarks, and designs can have, and how it is still necessary to disseminate and provide useful tools to European companies, especially SMEs, to facilitate their access to the protection of intellectual property rights.