Technology in the 21st Century
 Innovation trends since 2000

Industry Report

Your guide to the future of
innovation 

The Intellectual Property (IP) sector has time and again demonstrated its resilient and propitious nature, even under the harshest of circumstances. In 2021, around 3.4 million patent applications were filed worldwide, a 3.6% increase on the previous year. That is according to the World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPI) report, which tracks applications filed directly with national and regional offices as well as PCT
applications. Such growth testifies to the continuing pace of innovation and the importance of the patent system despite global setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent business disruption.
 
In this report, we look at what is driving this increase by analyzing trends in eight prominent  technology sectors in the period 2000-2020: automotive, biotechnology, energy, entertainment, IT / communication, medical devices, pharmaceuticals and space exploration.
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Automotive

Patenting activity in electricity storage had grown at an annual rate of 14% from 2005 to 2018, a pace "four times faster than the average of all technology fields."

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Pharmaceutical

Patent applications for platform technologies (such as diagnostics) have remained consistent since 2002, staying above 2,500 per year.

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Biotechnology

McKinsey estimated that the biosimilar market grew 56% a year between 2015 and 2020, when it reached $15 billion USD. It is projected to reach $30 billion USD by 2025 and then double to $60 billion USD by 2030.

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IT + Communication

Applications relating to the Internet of Things have grown from just 1,653 in 2000 to 54,546 in 2020 – an increase of almost 3,200%.

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Energy

There appear to be three main phases of energy innovation over the past 20+ years. Between each of these, periods of slow or negative growth are perhaps reflective of technological maturation.

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Entertainment

Patent applications for virtual and augmented reality have fluctuated enormously over the last two decades. Perhaps investors' interest is simply fickle regarding such technologies compared to more long-term, sure-fire investments such as healthcare or energy.

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Medical Devices

With an aging world population, an increase in the use of remote health monitoring is widely anticipated. One report by Grand View Research predicts that the global wearable medical device market will grow by 28.1% annually between 2022 and 2030.

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Space Exploration

Estimated at $469 USD billion in 2021, Bank of America expects the space economy to skyrocket to $1.4 trillion USD by 2030.

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