Protecting European Innovation: Private Equity's Role in European Intellectual Property Rights (Invest Europe)

Summary

• Between 2007 and the first half of 2023, European private equity and venture capital invested €809 billion in 56,042 EU companies.p.6
• Companies with pre-existing trade marks received 55% more funding at the venture stage, 45% at the growth stage, and 68% at the buyout stage.p.6
• A 100% increase in private equity or venture capital investment can potentially increase the odds of subsequent patent or trade mark filings by approximately 10%.p.7
• In the underlying sample, 27% of companies applied for a patent or trade mark, including 23% with trade mark filings, 11% with patent filings, and 7% with both.p.15
• The matched database built for the study contains 103,131 patent and trade mark filings across 56,042 portfolio companies.p.14

Key insights

1. Pre-investment trade mark activity shows a 55.4% increase in funding raised at the venture stage, 44.9% at the growth stage, and 68.1% at the buyout stage.p.30
2. Prior patenting activity gives companies approximately 9.33 times higher odds of filing a patent post-investment compared to those without prior patenting.p.32
3. A 10% increase in pre-investment trade marking activity correlates with a 3.97% increase in post-investment trade mark stock.p.33
4. Companies in Italy averaged over 2.5 trade mark filings per company, representing the highest brand protection activity in the study.p.16
5. Danish portfolio companies led on patenting activity with an average of almost 1.5 patent filings per company.p.18
6. Biotech and Healthcare is the leading sector for both patent and trade mark filings among private capital-backed firms.p.19
7. Rescue and turnaround funds directed the highest proportion of their investments into companies with both patent and trade mark filings.p.24
8. Pre-investment patent activity correlates with a 20.4% decrease in funding raised at the growth stage, but a 29.4% increase at the buyout stage.p.30