The Australian economy is dominated by SMEs, which account for 99 per cent of all companies, and thus have the potential to play a key role in re-building post-COVID-19.
As we look for ways to build the post-COVID-19 economy, a recent comprehensive study by the European Patent Office (EPO) has provided some insights on the positive role that innovation and Intellectual Property (IP) rights plays in increasing profitability and creating jobs.
The EPO study of more than 127,000 companies found that those companies that held at least one IP right, whether it be a patent, trade mark or design, generated 20 per cent higher revenues per employee than their counterparts without any IP rights. They also paid their employees 19 per cent more, and had more than 2.5 times the number of employees.
