Steinbeis experts in intelligent IP analysis help to make innovations more sustainable
With its European Green Deal, the European Union (EU) aims to make Europe a net-zero continent by 2050. To meet this goal, it is driving the transition to renewable energy, improved energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies. As part of the Green Deal, the EU adopted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires more detailed and transparent reporting on companies’ positive sustainability impacts. Steinbeis expert Professor Dr. Jörn Block and his team outline how patent and trademark data can be especially useful impact indicators for sustainability reporting.

Patents in Y-02 and SDG 7 (clean energy) and SDG 13 (climate action)
[Source: LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions, PatentSight and Business Intelligence, 2024. The numbers refer to the number of patent families that protect the same invention in different regions]
The EU Taxonomy defines business activities as sustainable if they contribute to at least one of the EU’s six environmental objectives: climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, sustainable use and protection of water and maritime resources, transition to a circular economy, pollution prevention and control, and protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems. However, the activities covered and indicators reported in the CSRD and EU Taxonomy do not explicitly refer to innovations. This is a weakness, given that innovations are the key to climate transformation in many industries. Measuring innovation outputs for corporate reporting purposes is undoubtedly difficult, since they are often uncertain and hard to predict. Moreover, it is far from easy to attribute the costs incurred for innovation outputs to a specific innovation object, product or sales figure. Nevertheless, it is important for the target audience of financial and sustainability reports to understand how a company’s innovation output develops over time and how it compares to the competition. Empirical research indicates that this information affects a company’s value in the capital markets.
In recent years, this has led some companies such as Symrise AG and BASF SE to start using intellectual property (IP) data, especially patent data, to describe their innovation output. The advantage of this approach is that the data is objective, transparent and comparable. Moreover, the patent and trademark offices only issue patents and trademarks after carrying out thorough checks. IP data can in principle also be used for sustainability reporting and measuring positive impacts or potential impacts.
Green patents
“Green patents” are patents whose contents relate to green innovations. The OECD started using patent data to identify green innovations in 2005. To do this, it employs some of the IPC classifications [1] of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). [2] In 2013, the European Patent Office (EPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) added the Y-02 class to the CPC [3]. This class is dedicated to inventions in the fields of climate change and climate change mitigation.
Companies like LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions are employing more advanced methods that use a combination of keywods and IPC/CPC classifications to categorize patents according to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This makes it possible to specifically identify patents that come under individual green sustainability goals such as “clean energy” (SDG 7) or “climate action” (SDG 13). Detailed classification methods like this are already being used in practice by companies such as Siemens and Merck and organizations like WIPO. [4] Analyses of the data indicate a strong increase in the number of patents attributed to SDGs 7 and 13 in recent years.
Green trademarks
More than 140,000 EU Trade Marks are registered with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) every year. The percentage of green trademark applications has been rising steadily for years, reaching almost 14% in 2022 (EUIPO, 2024). EUIPO classifies green trademarks based on the use of green/environmental terms in the formal description of goods and services submitted with the trademark application. A large proportion of these terms comes from the fields of energy production, energy storage, transportation, and pollution and waste management. In keeping with their public service remit, EUIPO and other trademark offices like the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) and USPTO make the trademark information in their registers freely available. However, they do not explicitly identify green trademarks – this has to be done independently, and involves a complex and time-consuming process.
Measuring sustainability impact with green IP indicators
Although the number of patents is often used as an indicator of the innovation performance and competitiveness of businesses, technologies, industries and entire countries, systematic analyses of their content and characteristics are comparatively rare. The practical applications fall short of what is possible in this area. For instance, it would be possible to calculate the percentage of green technologies in the overall portfolio, analyze the growth of certain green technologies, or assess a company’s competitive position in relation to specific green technologies.
There is a growing recognition among practitioners that simply counting the number of patents is not enough to enable sound, data-based decision-making. It is not only the absolute number of patents that is critical, but also their innovativeness, technological breadth and depth, and technology readiness level. These are exactly the factors addressed by metrics such as the ones used in the Patent Asset Index (see Ernst & Omland, 2011), that employ a combination of different patent indicators to assess the strength or value of individual patents and patent portfolios. This index, which LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions has made available in its database, for example, uses patent indicators to measure a patent’s technological influence and market coverage.
Supplementary patent information insights can be obtained by systematically analyzing trademark applications. Unlike patents, trademarks also protect non-technological innovations like innovative services or business models. Systematic analysis of trademark data provides valuable insights into a company’s competitive and innovation performance. This data can be used to make evidence-based predictions about planned market launches, expansions into new market segments, product extensions and the introduction of new business models and complementary services.
As with patents, the analytical potential of green trademarks in market research, sustainability management and strategic planning is still largely untapped. This is surprising, given that systematic analysis of green trademark applications could make brand companies’ contribution to society’s transition to a green economy more quantifiable and transparent. Green trademarks can also be used to identify companies that focus on green products, services and business models or are moving their business in this direction. This applies equally to established companies and to new businesses and startups. Furthermore, by combining trademark data with sales, capital market and/or emissions data, it is possible to determine the (financial) value of a green trademark so that it can be benchmarked against other trademarks.
Intelligent IP analysis and evidence-based sustainability impact measurement
The Steinbeis Transfer Center for Technology and IP Management specializes in quantitative patent and trademark analysis, working in collaboration with LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions/PatentSight GmbH. Our team of experts helps technology firms (from startups and SMEs to large enterprises), investors (for example venture capitalists, private equity firms and family offices), and M&A and technology consultants to make sound, data-based decisions informed by intelligent IP analysis.
With regard to sustainability impact measurement, the Steinbeis experts enable their clients to identify environmental innovations using patent and trademark data. These are differentiated on the basis of different innovation objects, innovation goals and technologies. Information from green patents and green trademarks is also combined with data from other sources in order to systematically and transparently evaluate an innovation or technology’s impact or potential impact. These sustainability impact assessments can be published as part of a company or organization’s sustainability reporting.
- IPC stands for International Patent Classification. Developed by the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), this patent classification system hierarchically assigns patents to areas of technology at different abstraction levels. Further information: https://wipo.int/classifications/ipc/en
- The OECD uses the classification developed by Ivan Haščič and Mauro Migotto: https://doi.org/10.1787/5js009kf48xw-en
- CPC stands for Cooperative Patent Classification. Developed by the European and US patent offices, the CPC is a hierarchical technology classification similar to the IPC. Y-02 includes technologies for mitigation or adaptation against climate change. Further information: https://www.cooperativepatentclassification.org/home; Angelucci et al., 2018
- World Intellectual Property Organization (2024); Siemens AG (2023). Sustainability Report 2023. https://assets.new.siemens.com/siemens/assets/api/uuid:00095b96-4712-4cd1-b045-19d5df704358/sustainability-report-fy2023.pdf; Merck KGaA (2023). Sustainability Report 2023. https://merckgroup.com/en/sustainability-report/2023/_assets/downloads/entire-merck-sr23.pdf
Contact
Prof. Dr. Jörn Block (author)
Steinbeis Entrepreneur
Steinbeis Transfer Center for Technology and IP Management (Trier)
Chair of Management
Universität Trier (Trier)
Dr. Carsten C. Guderian (author)
Senior Project Leader
LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions/PatentSight GmbH (Bonn)
Dr. Silvia Moyses-Scheingruber (author)
Lecturer in Strategy
Department of Engineering and Management (München)
Further reading and sources:
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Angelucci, S., Hurtado-Albir, F. J., & Volpe, A. (2018). Supporting global initiatives on climate change: The EPO’s “Y02-Y04S” tagging scheme. World Patent Information, 54, Supplement, 85-92.
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Block, J., Lambrecht, D., Willeke, T., Cucculelli, M., & Meloni, D. (2025). Green patents and green trademarks as indicators of green innovation. Research Policy, 54(1), 105138.
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Ernst, H., & Omland, N. (2011). The Patent Asset Index – A new approach to benchmark patent portfolios. World Patent Information, 33(1), 34-41.
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Guderian, C. C., Bican, P. M., Riar, F. J., & Chattopadhyay, S. (2021). Innovation management in crisis: patent analytics as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. R&D Management, 51(2), 223-239.
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Haščič, I. & Migotto, M. (2015). Measuring environmental innovation using patent data. OECD Environment Working Papers, No. 89, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/5js009kf48xw-en.
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Mendonça, S., Pereira, T. S., & Godinho, M. M. (2004). Trademarks as an indicator of innovation and industrial change. Research Policy, 33(9), 1385-1404.
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Sandner, P. G., & Block, J. (2011). The market value of R&D, patents, and trademarks. Research Policy, 40(7), 969-985.
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Van der Waal, J. W., Thijssens, T., & Maas, K. (2021). The innovative contribution of multinational enterprises to the Sustainable Development Goals. Journal of Cleaner Production, 285, 125319.
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World Intellectual Property Organization (2024). Mapping Innovations. Patents and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. https://www.wipo.int/publications/en/details.jsp?id=4716.