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. 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.