Story perspectives

EU Faces €365bn Credit Gap for IP-Intensive SMEs

6/30/2026

Summary

Story summary

Europe struggles to convert intellectual property into financing, leaving billions of euros of growth untapped.
The EU Intellectual Property Office finds a €365 billion credit gap for SMEs, €70-150 billion of which concerns IP-intensive firms.
Patents, trademarks, copyrights and designs account for 48 % of EU GDP and employ 31 % of the workforce.
Firms that register IP grow faster, pay higher wages and raise about half the U.S. venture capital after ten years.

History

Historical Context

From the Venetian Patent Statute of 1474, Europe built a tradition of codified patents that culminated in the 1998 EU Conditional Access Directive, creating a unified enforcement framework. The TRIPS agreement of 1995 later set global minimum standards. Yet women held only 16.5% of EU patents in 2020, underscoring the financing gap the Commission now seeks to close.

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Story summary

Europe struggles to convert intellectual property into financing, leaving billions of euros of growth untapped.
The EU Intellectual Property Office finds a €365 billion credit gap for SMEs, €70-150 billion of which concerns IP-intensive firms.
Patents, trademarks, copyrights and designs account for 48 % of EU GDP and employ 31 % of the workforce.
Firms that register IP grow faster, pay higher wages and raise about half the U.S. venture capital after ten years.

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