Economic benefits for companies owning intellectual property rights

A recent study titled Intellectual Property Rights and firm performance in the EU by the European Patent office (EPO) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) shows that companies that own intellectual property rights on average generate higher revenues per employee than companies which do not own any intellectual property rights. This relationship between owning intellectual property rights and economic performance is even more prominent for SMEs. Moreover, SMEs that own intellectual property rights have higher revenues per employee than those that do not own intellectual property rights.

The study further shows that only a relatively small percentage, 9%, of the SMEs in Europe owns intellectual property rights. So there is still a lot of potential for SMEs for exploring intellectual property rights.

More information about the study can be found here.