European patents are not just for big industry applicants. Around 21% of patent applications filed at the EPO by European applicants come from small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individual inventors, with a further 5% from universities and public research organisations from which SMEs are often spun off to commercialise new technologies. Therefore, SMEs that use European patents are typically driven by innovation and focused on scaling up their activities.
This section looks at how new and established SMEs use IP to protect and market their inventions as well as leverage them to secure higher margins, license technology, establish collaboration agreements with partners and attract investors.
