Company sector

Biotech and Healthcare is the leading sector for both patents and trade marks. European biotechs and pharma groups are developing and patenting ground-breaking treatments for serious illnesses and conditions. Some of those can become trade-marked drugs and products that can save lives, or improve the quality of life of millions of people around the world.

Consumer Goods and Services businesses have on average over 1.5 trade marks per company, the highest level of any sector. That illustrates the importance of strong and recognisable trade marks to consumers, and the value of protecting those trade marks for their respective owning companies. The sectoral distribution outlined in Figure 5 reveals that Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Business Products and Services, and Consumer Goods and Services had the highest number of companies in the sample. Biotech and Healthcare led in terms of companies filing for IPRs, both patents and trade marks. This sector also showed the highest percentage of companies filing for both types of IPRs.

While ICT has a high percentage of trade mark filings, it has relatively fewer patent filings. This trend reflects the uncertainty over whether software is eligible for patenting under the European Patent Convention (EPC), which excludes "programs for computers" from patentable inventions (Article 52) and sets a high bar for proving the inventive step necessary for patenting software (Article 56). Unlike the USPTO, the EPC allows patenting of software only when it is embedded in a device, resulting in the patenting of the device itself, such as a smart module for a fridge, rather than the software alone. Consequently, ICT companies focus more on brand protection through trade marks while relying on copyright (CR) for software protection.

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Key statistics

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28%

of biotech PE/VC backed companies have filed for at least 1 patent between 2007 and the first half of 2023

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27%

of ICT PE/VC backed companies have filed for at least 1 trade mark between 2007 and the first half of 2023

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1.65

trade mark applications for the average PE/VC backed consumer goods and services company between 2007 and the first half of 2023

 

Figure 5: Number of companies and share of companies filing for IP rights, by company sector

 
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Note: Total number of EU27 companies in the sample is 56,042 between 2007 and the first half of 2023. The chart above represents the number of companies filing for IP rights per company sector, and then the share of companies having at least one patent filing, trade mark filing, or both.

 
 

As represented in Figure 6, the Biotech and Healthcare sector leads in terms of number of patents per company, followed by Chemicals and Materials. The Consumer Goods and Services sector led in terms of trade marks per company, followed by Biotech and Healthcare, and Chemicals and Materials. Interestingly, although not particularly intense in terms of patenting activity, the Agriculture sector exhibited, on average, more than one trade mark filing per company.

 

Figure 6: Average IPR filings per company, by company sector

 
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Note: Total number of EU27 companies in the sample is 56,042 between 2007 and the first half of 2023. The chart above represents the average number of IPR filings per company, by company sector.