In an increasingly complex and demanding geopolitical context, industrial property is a pillar of innovation, sustainability, and economic growth. Investing in Industrial Property means investing in the future – in talent, innovation, and the ability to transform ideas into progress.
A country’s competitiveness and economic development today rely on its capacity to turn knowledge into value. This process largely depends on the protection of industrial property (IP). It is through IP that innovation, differentiation, and the sustainability of economic growth, national, European, and global, are anchored, within an ever more complex and demanding geopolitical environment.
The report on the future of European competitiveness, presented by Mario Draghi, former President of the European Central Bank, highlights a troubling reality: in 2021, Europe accounted for 17 per cent of global patent applications, compared with 21 per cent in the United States and 25 per cent in China. Yet this scientific and technological dynamism does not translate into proportional economic growth. Only about one-third of patented inventions from European universities and research centres are commercially exploited. The knowledge exists, what’s missing is its conversion into tangible economic value.
This is precisely where industrial property plays a strategic role. The Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) strives every day to ensure that the protection of intangible assets is not merely an administrative act, but an instrument of economic policy and competitiveness. The Institute grants and manages industrial property rights (IPRs), trademarks, patents, utility models, designs, and artisanal and industrial geographical indications, while promoting a culture that recognises the value of knowledge.
Read the full article by Ana Bandeira, President of the Directive Council of the Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property
