The United States is the world leader in investments into intangible capital. Intangible capital, in contrast to physical capital like buildings and machines, includes investments into knowledge producing activities such as research and development (R&D), software, and entertainment, literary, and artistic originals. Businesses and other organizations often protect the outcomes of their intangible capital investments with intellectual property (IP) rights—such as utility and design patents, trademarks, and copyrights—as they pursue commercial opportunities.
IP-intensive industries contributed about 44% to private sector GDP in 2024
The IP-intensive industries accounted for $11.4 trillion (or 44%) of private sector GDP in 2024. Trademark-intensive industries accounted for $9.5 trillion in private sector GDP (36%), while the utility patent- and design patent-intensive industries contributed $5.6 trillion (23%) and $6.8 trillion (26%) respectively to private sector GDP. Copyright-intensive industries accounted for 7% of private sector GDP, or $1.9 trillion.
View a graph of the private sector GDP of the IP-intensive industries in 2024 below.
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Notes: (1) An industry is considered intensive in a form of intellectual property (IP) if the number of IP rights granted to companies in the industry per worker is greater than the economy-wide average. (2) An industry is IP-intensive if it is intensive in any of the individual forms of IP. (3) Values for the individual forms of IP do not sum up to the total IP-intensive value because some industries are intensive in more than one form of IP. (4) GDP refers to Gross Domestic Product.
IP-intensive industries supported about 66 million U.S. private sector jobs in 2024
The contribution of IP-intensive industries to private sector employment includes both direct and indirect employment. Direct employment captures all workers in IP-intensive industries, whereas indirect employment captures employment in non-IP-intensive industries that depend, at least partially, on sales of intermediate goods and services to IP-intensive industries. In 2024, the IP-intensive industries directly employed roughly 50 million individuals and indirectly accounted for the employment of an additional 16 million individuals in non-IP-intensive industries. Relative to total U.S. private sector employment, IP-intensive industries directly account for 33% of total employment and indirectly account for another 11%.
View a graph of the U.S. private sector jobs of IP-intensive industries in 2024 below.
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Notes: (1) An industry is considered intensive in a form of intellectual property (IP) if the number of IP rights granted to companies in the industry per worker is greater than the economy-wide average. (2) An industry is IP-intensive if it is intensive in any of the individual forms of IP. (3) Values for the individual forms of IP do not sum up to the total IP-intensive value because some industries are intensive in more than one form of IP. (4) Direct employment reflects the number of jobs provided by the IP-intensive industries. (5) Indirect employment reflects jobs in other industries, which depend at least partially on sales of intermediate goods and services to the IP-intensive industries.
Previous reports
Third edition, 2022
2016 update
Original report, 2012