Study on Patents and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

A new study published by the European Patent Office (EPO) shows that innovation in fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies has accelerated significantly worldwide in the last decade.

Between 2010 and 2018, global patent filings for these technologies, which concern smart connected objects and span the Internet of Things, big data, 5G, and artificial intelligence (AI), grew at an average annual rate of almost 20% - nearly five times faster than the average of all technology fields.

Entitled Patents and the Fourth Industrial Revolution - the global technology trends enabling the data-driven economy, the study looks at all international patent families (IPFs) related to 4IR worldwide between 2000 and 2018. Each of these represents a high-value invention for which patent applications have been filed at two or more patent offices globally.

The study finds that nearly 40 000 new IPFs were filed for these technologies in 2018 alone. This means they accounted for more than 10% of all patenting activity worldwide that year.

Looking at the geographical origin of 4IR innovation, the study confirms that the US remains the world leader, accounting for around a third of all inventions between 2000 and 2018, compared with Europe and Japan with about one fifth each. The US has even reinforced its lead in patents filed globally since 2010, growing annually on average by 18.5%, which is faster than both Europe and Japan (average annual growth rates of 15.5% and 15.8% over the same period).

Starting from very low levels in the late 2000s, the innovative activity of China and South Korea has increased at a very high rate (posting annual average growth of 39.3% and 25.2% respectively from 2010 until 2018).

The patent data in the study also shows that innovation is concentrated in certain regional clusters of innovation around the world, typically in large urban agglomerations with an ecosystem of high-performing R&D institutions around leading companies.

The top 20 4IR clusters constitute the main sources of 4IR innovation in their countries and are jointly responsible for well over half (56.3%) of all IPFs in the period 2010-2018. The regional ranking is topped by 13 Asian and US clusters, followed by seven clusters located in Europe and the Middle East, all with different leading companies and 4IR specialisation profiles.

The study will be presented during the virtual conference “The role of patents in an AI drive world”, hosted by EPO on December 17^th and 18^th . For further details please consult: https://www.epo.org/news-events/events/conferences/ai2020.html

The full study and summary are available here: epo.org/trends-4IR