Despite the economic slowdown in the EU, the so-called high-intensity intellectual property rights (IPR) sector has resisted well and has even made slight progress over the 2011-13 period compared with the 2008-2010 period, according to a new joint report by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) published on Tuesday, 25 October.
These results speak for themselves. The high-intensity intellectual property rights sector (trade marks, patents, designs and models, copyright, geographical indications and plant variety rights) account for 27.8% of direct jobs in the EU as highlighted in the 2016 study, as opposed to 25.9% for the study published in 2013. Similarly, the sector corresponds to 42.3% of GDP (€5.7 trillion) in the European Union, as opposed to 38.6% for the previous period.
The 2016 study results indicate that the sector accounts for approximately 38.1% of all employment in the EU, if indidirect jobs are taken into account, which corresponds to 82.2 million posts. The report also finds that average wages in IPR-intensive industries are more than 46% higher than in other industries. This disparity is even sharper for companies that have a large number of patents and where wages are 69% higher than in other sectors.
Whilst providing assurances of the continuity in the methodology used in the previous study, there are, however, some new developments. Firstly, the scope has been expanded to take into account Croatia’s accession in 2013. Another category of intellectual property, focusing on plant varieties, has also been introduced (see EUROPE 11440). In addition, a new chapter on climate change mitigation technologies has also been added, to take into account the fact that decision-makers in Europe and elsewhere are currently focusing on this subject, the authors of the study state, referring to the Paris agreement (COP 21) that was signed in December 2015 (see EUROPE 11456). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)