Intellectual Property Rights And Firm Performance In Europe: An Economic Analysis

The EU Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights has recently published the results of a survey based on official financial data retrieved from over 2.3 million European firms and with the purpose to quantify the contribution of Intellectual Property to the firms economic growth. Such an economic analysis has shown that, on the one hand, only a small part of European SMEs holds Intellectual Property Rights (9% compared with nearly 40% of big Companies). However, in contrast those SMEs investing in Intellectual Property produce revenues per employee to a greater extent then the others by nearly 32%, making clear, data in hand, the important contribution of Intellectual Property for the economic growth of firms. Moreover, the results of the research at issue should be read together with those of a previous analysis of 2013 conducted by the Observatory. On that occasion, it was found that about 40% of total economic activity of the EU and about 35% of jobs in the EU come directly or indirectly from Companies whose use rights Intellectual Property is above the average.