This study was conducted by Intellectual property service and R&D tax credit specialists Source Advisors. Material is available to re-publish, with credit (including link) to Source Advisors. This report was published on 29 July 2024. Please get in touch for additional information.
Science and Technology is a key priority for the incoming Labour government, the UK has a proud history of science and innovation from the Industrial Revolution to the development of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. However, the current cost of living crisis, planning reform, and healthcare are all taking centre stage on the government’s agenda. As we all know, policies cost money and are usually funded by the taxpayer, therefore the future of our economy will be a key driver to how ambitious Labour can be with its policy making.
Having said that, technology is playing a pivotal role in Labour’s policy priorities. Key problems such as the climate crisis, increasing productivity, and the future of jobs are at the heart of issues that capture the public’s attention right now. From the expansion of broadband infrastructure to the implementation of artificial intelligence in both the public and private sectors, this election promised investment in a wide range of technological advancements that will transform the way we live our lives.
To give some examples, Labour pledged approx. £23bn into their Green Prosperity Plan, promised full gigabit and national 5G coverage by 2030 and will reverse the 2035 delay on banning new petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles. There is an all-party consensus on the need to push policies to promote a technologically empowered future. The new government will need to focus on policies that will not only foster innovation but also address the ethical, societal and environmental challenges that accompany rapid technological change.
In this research, we delve into the critical technologies that are set to shape the next parliament. We explore how issues such as network infrastructure/telecoms, artificial intelligence and low-carbon transport are being tackled by other countries, and what patent data can reveal about the UK’s strategic power in these sectors. The major political parties want the UK to be the global leader in the technologies of the future, Labour has now won, and this article will highlight where the UK sits against other nations and how much of a job Labour must do to drive the UK to truly compete on the world stage.
Our research focuses on the volume of innovative output from the UK compared to other territories for three key technology areas: Automotive, AI and Telecoms. This report illustrates the UK’s position through deep analysis of patent data. Patents (and patent applications) are a useful indicator of the R&D direction for a given sector, it provides great insight into the density of innovative activity on a global scale and, with over 150 million patent applications published worldwide, provides a comprehensive dataset to carry out such analysis.
Patent data can be used to construct an innovation landscape, uncovering the R&D effort exerted into a certain field of technology at a given point in time. Patents are also territorial, there is no such thing as a worldwide patent, therefore it is possible to track the origins of a technology by its filing history.
Through our comprehensive analysis, this article aims to answer five key questions:
Our analysis (Fig.1) shows broadly that all three technology areas can be classified as high growth. The automotive and telecoms industries appear to be growing at a relatively similar rate, however, patent filings from the AI industry have increased at a much faster rate and is now projected to overtake the telecoms industry on filing volume in the next three years.
Figure 1. Growth (inc. projected growth) by volume of patent filings in each of the top 3 technology areas from 2010-2026
To illustrate which countries are driving the most growth in each of these industries, Table 1 below shows each of the top 10 countries ranked in order of volume of patents filed since 2010. This shows that China and the US are very much dominant and have taken the top 2 spots for each technology area. Our analysis has shown that the US and China represent an over 50% share of all filings for each technology area and, at its most extreme, US and Chinese filings equate to approximately over 75% of all AI related filings.
The UK has comparatively ranked 9th for automotive and 8th for both telecoms and AI.
Table 1. Countries ranked by patent filing volume per technology area for filings since 2010.
To better understand which technologies were being developed Table 2 provides a list of the top 10 technologies filed since 2010 for each of our chosen industries. This gives a good indication of where R&D efforts were spent over the last 14 years. It is clear that the top technologies for each of the three areas still has room to grow, there are fundamental technical uncertainties still to be solved and therefore it is not the case that these industries are developed to a point where a plateau may be seen.
Table 2. Top 10 technologies by filing volume for the automotive, telecoms and AI industries since 2010.
In contrast, table 3 provides a summary of where the UK specifically has specialisation. The table lists the top 10 technologies where the UK is likely to be the origin, though it is worth noting that there is some overlap with the list provided in table 2. Each sector report will illustrate how the UK fares against other comparative nations by technology. Below the technologies specific to the UK’s top 10 list is highlighted for greater visibility.
Table 3. UK’s top 10 technologies by filing volume for the automotive, telecoms and AI industries since 2010.
In summary, it seems clear from Labour’s manifesto that the incoming government wants to drive growth through public and private investment in science and technology. We have heard this before; the last Government’s ambition was to make the UK a global science and technology superpower and to be the world leader in a variety of technology areas. In reality, the UK has fallen behind other nations from all corners of the globe.
This research has shown that the UK sits at the lower end of the top 10 for patents filed in the Automotive, Telecoms and AI industries. Ultimately, it highlights the level of work needed by the incoming government to position the UK to truly compete on the world stage. Now, funding routes such as the R&D tax relief regime, grant funding and private investment are all crucial to driving growth. However, we ask the incoming government to carefully consider the importance of intellectual property awareness, protection and commercialisation as a key lever to driving growth. Other comparative nations are clearly ahead of the UK in doing this. Perhaps it’s time for the UK to have its own intellectual property strategy.
About Akshay Thaman | IP Consultant & Policy Lead
Akshay works closely with Source Advisors’ clients to uncover IP that may be hidden within their businesses. As a Member of the British Patent Information Professionals group (BPIP) he brings academic rigour and commercial experience to his role as IP Consultant & Policy Lead.
View profile
Data collection for this report was conducted on 21 June 2024 for patents filed from 1 January 2010 onwards. This report analyses filings that are either granted and active or currently patent pending, therefore excluding any expired or lapsed patents or patent applications.
