The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently unveiled a groundbreaking report shedding light on the expansive patent landscape within Generative AI (GenAI), a technology that promises substantial advancements across numerous industries globally.
GenAI is set to become a pivotal force driving innovation in products, services, and processes, fundamentally transforming sectors ranging from banking and high tech to life sciences. According to McKinsey, this technological wave could potentially inject between US$2.6 trillion and US$4.4 trillion annually into various industry use cases by leveraging AI capabilities.
Analyzing patent data spanning from 2014 to 2023, WIPO’s research highlights 21 primary application domains where GenAI is making significant strides. Leading the pack is software and other applications, underscoring its pervasive influence across digital realms. Notably, the life sciences sector follows closely, emphasizing GenAI’s pivotal role in medical advancements, while document management and publishing ranks third, highlighting its impact on information dissemination and archival.
Global Patent Trends
Overall, patent growth has been significant across all sectors since 2014. Nevertheless, in the past three years, distinct patterns of growth have emerged. Smaller sectors like agriculture and energy management, alongside major fields such as life sciences, security, and physical sciences/engineering, have exhibited notably high growth rates. Conversely, certain application areas, such as telecommunications and arts, have seen stagnant or declining numbers of patent families during this period.
Leading Patent Owners
In terms of patent ownership, Tencent, a Chinese technology giant known for its social networking, gaming, and digital services, emerges as a dominant figure across multiple GenAI applications, including software development, entertainment, and security. Following closely, Ping An Insurance Group, is a Chinese financial services company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, banking, asset management, and financial services.
Top Inventor Locations
Geographically, China leads the charge in patent filings across nearly all GenAI applications, underlining its status as a global innovation hub. Meanwhile, the United States demonstrates significant strength in sectors like physical sciences, engineering, and education, showcasing a diverse application of GenAI across academic and industrial landscapes.
GenAI Core Models and Applications
A critical aspect of GenAI’s proliferation lies in its core models, with Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) emerging as a cornerstone technology driving innovations in fields like transportation. Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) are pivotal in life and medical sciences, telecommunications, while Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing content creation and textual analysis across educational and entertainment sectors.
Generative AI Modes in GenAI Applications
The choice of GenAI modes for each GenAI application is determined by the data processing needs and the specific outputs required, with nearly all modes being utilized to varying degrees across different applications.
Image and video dominate GenAI applications across software and many fields, including transportation, life sciences, and the arts. Text data is essential for document management, publishing, and social sciences. Voice, speech and music are pivotal in personal devices, education and telecommunications. Molecules, genes, and proteins are central to life sciences and engineering. Software and code are crucial in security and finance, while other data types support diverse sectors such as business solutions and manufacturing.
Final Thoughts
The WIPO patent landscape report gives a clear picture of how GenAI is changing technology in the digital age. For more details on how GenAI is evolving and affecting industries worldwide, check out WIPO’s detailed GenAI Patent Landscape Report in its entirety: WIPO’s comprehensive GenAI Patent Landscape Report.
And if you are interested in GenAI, listen to our recent webinar on “Best Practices for Leveraging AI to Manage IP”, where industry experts cover the convergence of AI and IP management, strategies for selecting when and where to leverage AI to manage IP, trends shaping the future of IP management, and more.
