Intellectual property-intensive industries account for 44% of private-sector GDP, 66 million jobs, and $1.58 trillion in commodity exports, according to a new report released by the United States Patent and Trademark Office this month. The report sheds light on how IP is distributed among various industries.
The fourth in a series beginning in 2012, the report identified industries that obtain more utility patents, design patents, or trademarks per employee than the economy-wide average. An industry clearing that threshold in any one type counts as IP-intensive, and 128 of the 210 industries examined qualified as such. Trademarks accounted for the largest group, with 103 industries, followed by 91 design patent-intensive and 75 utility patent-intensive industries. For copyrights, USPTO identified 13 industries that produce copyrighted material instead of counting registrations.
Most industries qualified in more than one category. Ninety-six of the 128 industries were intensive in at least two forms of IP. Three industries were intensive in all four: software publishers, computer systems design and related services, and cable and other subscription programming. Four qualified on utility patents alone: support activities for mining, nonferrous metal production and processing, telecommunications carriers, as well as colleges, universities, and professional schools. Higher education appears here as a result of how the USPTO assigns each right to the entity that holds it. Patents owned by a university count towards the higher education industry rather than the field the research came from or to wherever the technology may eventually be licensed.
Several TBED-related industries are among the report’s largest economic contributors. Aerospace products and parts led all IP-intensive industries in commodity exports at $141 billion, with pharmaceuticals and medicines, basic chemicals, and semiconductors also among the top exporting industries. Software publishers and computer systems design and related services contributed $380 billion and $522 billion to private-sector GDP. The report’s single largest output contributor, however, is housing and real estate, which added $830 billion to private-sector GDP, qualifying as IP-intensive through trademarks alone. It and computer systems design were also the leading IP-intensive industries by employment, together accounting for more than 5 million jobs.
The industry classifications draw on patents issued and trademarks registered between 2017 and 2021, the most recent years for which the USPTO could match rights holders to establishment-level business data. The economic estimates are for 2024, so the industries identified as IP-intensive reflect activity initiated several years before the output and employment levels attributed to them.