UK IPO report: use of intellectual property rights across UK industries

The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has published a report which shows that over a third (34.95%) of UK industries are found to be ‘IP intensive’. The report, published on 9th June 2022 here, is an update to a similar publication by the IPO in September 2020. The research was undertaken by the Economics Evidence and Research team and assesses the contribution that these industries make to the UK economy, employment, output and exported goods. The analysis covers the years 2014 to 2016 and 2017 to 2019.

Intellectual property (IP) is an important part of the innovation ecosystem, playing a vital role in enabling innovators to realise the returns from their research and development. This paper... allows for an enhanced understanding of IP use for domestic policy making

The report looks at which industries are above average (or intensive) users of different types of IP in the UK, and analyses these industries’ collective contributions to different economic measures.

 

The report measured an industry’s usage of patents, trade marks, and designs, and normalised based on total employment in that industry. It found that trade marks are the most common of all registered IP rights, with over 95% of all industries being granted at least one between 2017 and 2019. The economic impact of the intensive industries was also measured, looking at non-financial GVA, employment, and export value. In the aggregate, industries that were intensive users of any form of IP contributed:

• 33% of non-financial GVA.
• 19% of total employment.
• 58% of total export goods value.

Summary of report highlights

35.4% of UK industries (218 out of 616 UK industries) were found to have above average IP usage in any of the four IP rights considered with 15.1% of UK industries (93) having high IP usage.

With respect to registered IP rights only (i.e. excluding copyright) 27.1% of UK industries (167) were found to be intensive, and 8% (19) were found to be highly intensive.

Across the 616 UK industries, trade marks were the most widely used IP right, occurring across over 95% of industries and having the highest number of industries with above average IP use

Compared to patents, registered designs were used more widely and were found to have higher number of industries with above average use of IP. 60.1% of industries for designs, compared to 55% for patents.

Across all registered IP rights, there were a small number of industries which were granted many IP rights, while the majority were only granted a few. There were 83 above average users of copyright.