Ecological Patents and Trademarks as Indicators of Ecological Innovation

The identification of ecological innovation and ecologically innovative firms is important for understanding the role of innovation and technology in the transition to a greener economy. Information from patent and trademark data offers an objective, transparent, fast, and cost-effective way to identify ecological innovation, particularly compared to information gathered from surveys. However, the validity of this measurement approach has not been fully established yet. This study combines survey, patent and trademark data and investigates whether ecological patents and trademarks can help to identify ecologically innovative firms by using two characteristically different samples from Germany and Italy. The results show that many ecologically innovative firms are overlooked when only patent and trademark-based measures are used. While ecological trademarks are a useful indicator for varying types of ecological innovation, ecological patents as a measure show mixed results. The predictive power of ecological patents and trademarks is most pronounced for ecological product innovation. Further analyses show that ecological patents as a measure produce better results for large firms while trademarks as a measure also produce good results for small firms. Also, the identification works better for established than for young firms. The predictive power of both patents and trademarks is better in manufacturing than in other industries. Comparing different ecological patent identification approaches, no apparent differences are revealed. The results of our study have implications for policymakers and investors seeking to identify ecologically innovative firms or investment targets