A recent report by Confindustria based on Eurostat data and EPO (European Patent Office), found that in the last twenty years the investment in R&D of Italian companies has almost doubled, from 0.5% of GDP in 2000 to 0,94% of 2020, with an acceleration in the last three years despite the economic crisis (+3.9 in 2022 compared to the previous year).
In contrast, over the same period, public investment in innovation remained broadly unchanged (from 0.50% of GDP in 2020 to 0.56% in 2020 against an EU average of 0.8% and 1% in Germany).
Also on the patent level, Italian companies have proved very active: in 2021 there was an increase in European patent applications of 6.5% compared to the previous year, a result higher than the average of countries participating in the European Patent system (+2.8%).
In particular, Italian companies confirm the growth in patents in various sectors, such as electronic engineering (+ 11% of European patent applications submitted in 2021 compared to 2020), medical (+16%), environmental (+21%), biotechnology (+8%)as well as in the mechanical sector (+8%) and in the transport sector (+9%).
Moreover, Italian scientific research produces many publications but few patents: only 2.5% of the total worldwide, against 5.9% of France (which publishes less than Italy) and 14% of Germany. This obviously means that the economic return of public research must be improved: also to solve this aspect, in particular, is addressed the reform of the Code of Industrial Property just approved in the Senate and now under consideration in the Chamber of Deputies.
