The Use of IPR Ensures a Quarter of Jobs

As much as 39 percent of the total economic activity in the European Union, valued at 4.7 billion euros, arises from intellectual property rights (IPR), according to a study conducted jointly by the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM).

The study titled ‘Industries that Rely on Intellectual Property Rights: Contribution to Economic Success and European Employment’ measured the importance of intellectual property in the European economy. Among other findings, the study showed that 26 percent of all jobs in the EU, amounting to 56 million, come directly from industries that rely on IPR, while another nine percent indirectly comes from these industries.

What is Protected As a criterion for determining industries that rely on IPR, all those that register more IPRs per employee than other industries or those in which the use of IPR is a core characteristic of their activities were taken into account. These industries were selected at the EU level, for example, by using IPR intensity measures for the entire EU and include, among others, the manufacture of electric hand tools (patents), production of basic pharmaceutical products (trademarks), production of watches (design), publishing of books (copyright), and running dairies and cheese production (geographical origin). 

Sectorally, however, industries that strongly rely on intellectual property rights include finance, advertising, and oil, as well as the production of ice cream, wine, wallpaper, electric lighting, household appliances, and satellite communications. Many of them simultaneously use multiple different intellectual properties, and the average salary is more than 40 percent higher in such industries than in others.

Europe Better than the USA This research followed a very similar endeavor conducted last year in America, where the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, together with the Bureau of Economic Analysis and Statistics, reached similar conclusions about the American economy, noting that the share of employees in these industries and their impact on GDP is greater in Europe than in America. 

Given the now confirmed importance of intellectual property rights in the European economy, the EU has decided to further encourage such industries by introducing a unitary patent for 24 member states participating in this from next year. Instead of different registration procedures depending on the member state, one patent registered in one member state will be equally valid for all others, significantly simplifying and reducing the cost of the procedure.