Estimating UK investment in intangible assets and Intellectual Property Rights

Abstract

This report estimates (a) the level of UK market sector investment in knowledge assets and (b) the proportions of those investments protected by Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). Estimates for knowledge investment are produced as part of the UK Innovation Index. Our main findings are: 1) In 2011 the UK market sector invested £137.5bn in knowledge assets, compared to £89.8bn in tangible assets; 2) Since the recession of 2008-9, intangible investment has recovered and grew in 2010-11. In contrast investment in tangible assets has been flat; 3) In 2011, 48% (£65.6bn) of knowledge investment in the UK market sector was protected by IPRs 4) The majority of IPR investment is on assets protected by copyright (46%), unregistered design rights (21%) and trademarks (21%). *Contacts: Jonathan Haskel and Peter Goodridge, Imperial College Business School, Imperial College, London. SW7 2AZ. j.haskel@ic.ac.uk, p.goodridge10@ic.ac.uk. We are very grateful for financial support for this research from NESTA and the UK Intellectual Property Office. This work was based on data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), National Employers Skills Survey (NESS) and UK Innovation Survey (UKIS), produced by the Office for National Statistics and supplied by the Secure Data Service at the UK Data Archive. The data are Crown Copyright and reproduced with the permission of the controller of HMSO and Queen's Printer for Scotland. The use of the data in this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS or Secure Data Service at the UK Data Archive in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the data. This work uses research datasets which may not exactly reproduce National Statistics aggregates. We thank Tony Clayton of the IPO for very helpful suggestions. Views expressed in this paper represent those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of affiliated institutions. All errors are of course our own.