EPO, a map of specialised investors and free flow of data with the EU

The European Commission proposed in March 2025 the first EU adequacy decision on the level of data protection (i.e. a level of protection for personal data essentially equivalent to that applying within the EU) concerning an international organisation, the European Patent Organisation (EPO). The draft adequacy decision opens the way to the free exchange of data between the UE and EPO, with reference to the procedures to obtain the granting of European patents.  The draft text of the adequacy decision has now to pass the scrutiny of the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), and possibly also of the European Parliament, and the approval of a committee of representatives of the EU Member States before final adoption.  

In the meantime, the EPO’s Observatory on Patents and Technology has published a study addressing the challenges that tech startups face in raising public and private funding. The European situation is analysed in comparison to the US. Findings show that public investors are essential to Europe’s innovation ecosystem, working alongside private investors. The report also introduces the Technology Investor Score (TIS), a new metric representing the proportion of companies in an investor’s portfolio that have filed patent applications. A higher rating is representative of higher degrees of investor specialisation in patented technology. According to the study, 88% of European investors have portfolios that include companies with patent applications. 

Source: European Commission, European Patent Office