New Joint Study from EUIPO & Invest Europe: Protecting European Innovation – Private Equity’s Role in European Intellectual Property Rights

In collaboration with Invest Europe, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) published a study that aims to elucidate the relationship between intellectual property (IP) and private equity investments, focusing on how Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) investments in Europe correlate with trademark and patent filings of the recipient firms. Investment data is sourced from Invest Europe's comprehensive records on PE and VC across Europe, while IP data is retrieved from the EUIPO EU TM register and PATSTAT of European Patent Office (EPO). 

The study analysed over 56 000 portfolio companies and over 100 000 trademark and patent filings across Europe between 2007 and end-June 2023. According to the report a total of EUR 809 billion was invested in EU27 companies over the period, with 20 % of investment in companies with patents and 39 % in businesses with trademarks. 

The findings underscore a strong link between private capital investment and the expansion of IP assets, revealing that a 100% increase in private investment corresponds to a 10% rise in trademark and patent filings. This highlights the critical role of financial backing in driving innovation.

Read the full report.