Bringing cleantech innovation to market in Europe

Auteur: Raymond Rammeloo, Belgisch octrooigemachtigde, Europees octrooigemachtigde, Nederlands octrooigemachtigde

Webinars of the European Patent Office are an effective way of staying up-to-date with patenting trends and IP strategies. Today – on World Intellectual Property Day – a report and webinar on financing and commercialisation of cleantech innovations was presented. Speakers of the European Patent Office, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) and Breakthrough Energy shared their findings and experience.

Some takeaways I would like to share:

Half of all new green startups are born in Europe.

Cleantech patenting outgrowths other fields of technology.

Innovators with patents attract more funding and establish more partnerships with other businesses.

In the EU, cleantech innovators experience a funding gap when growing from a start-up to an industrial business. The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Commission champion mixed funding: use public funds to attract more private investment. Even so, EU cleantech innovators attract more VC funds than average.

Another bottleneck to commercialisation of promising technologies is the lack of consistent regulation throughout the EU. For example, there is no common standard for green hydrogen gas. This means additional investments are needed to demonstrate (technical) compliance for each individual EU member state.

As the regulatory framework is slowly shifting towards cleaner, more sustainable technologies, the future for cleantech innovators looks bright. Just don’t forget to protect your IP…