According to this recent study by the US Patent and Trademark Office and the Economics and Statistics Administration, industries where intellectual property protection plays a pivotal role made up 34.8 percent of GDP in 2010. To determine which industries are “intellectual property-intensive,” the analysis included patent data from 1963 through 2008, trademark data from a recent five-year period, and copyright data from 2009 to calculate the intensity of IP activity for each industry.
Those industries that have a higher-than-mean ratio of patents/trademarks to employees were deemed IP-intensive. The top four patent industries, and their respective patent data, are shown below:
| Industry | # of Patents | Employment (1000 jobs) | Patent Intensity (patents/1000 jobs) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer and peripheral equipment | 55,416 | 196.1 | 277.5 |
| Communications equipment | 35,797 | 135.2 | 264.8 |
| Semiconductor and other electronic components | 50,088 | 71.4 | 111.6 |
| Other computer and electronic products | 7,744 | 441.3 | 108.5 |
The top four trademark industries are shown below:
| Industry | Trademark Intensity (trademarks/1000 jobs) |
|---|---|
| Audio & video equipment mfg. | 82.5 |
| Other miscellaneous manufacturing | 64.5 |
| Satellite telecommunications | 35.3 |
| Lessors of nonfinancial intangible assets | 33.3 |
The study identified copyright-intensive industries, and then combined the data to determine the 75 top industries in terms of intellectual property utilization. Upon identifying these IP-intensive industries, the study brought forth interesting statistics and trends, such as those demonstrated in the following chart:
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