Intellectual Property Management Software Market

Market Overview

The global intellectual property management software market size was valued at USD 8.2 billion in 2022. It is expected to reach USD 25.02 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 13.20% during the forecast period (2023–2031).

Intellectual property is a legal strategy that grants its authors or inventors exclusive rights to preserve ideas or discoveries for commercial gain. The intellectual property management software market is expanding rapidly due to the gradual rise in larger businesses' usage of outsourcing services. Managing the organization's intellectual property portfolio is just as important as managing the business. It is a big piece in almost any enterprise's value puzzle. Any business manager must optimize returns on workers, equipment, products, and services. However, multiple organizations overlook or short-change intellectual property.

Furthermore, in-house IP management is highly resource-demanding and requires significant investments. Outsourcing IP management helps enterprises reduce costs, productivity growth, and improve profitability. Thus, increasing emphasis on optimizing enterprises' business operations is anticipated to drive the intellectual property services market over the forecast period. Moreover, the increasing demand for unique IPs for goods is also fuelling the growth of the intellectual property outsourcing market.

Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Growing Patent, Trademark, and Industrial Design Applications

In terms of making a product successful, this requires constant improvement compared to other existing products. Adding features requires innovation built upon the existing patents filed in various regions. Innovations are vital for gaining a price advantage as well. The use of a wide range of patents to produce a product and enhance its functionalities is increasing in the market, thus pushing businesses to manage their IPs better.

For this reason, there has been a meteoric rise in the number of patent applications submitted worldwide in recent years. According to WIPO data, innovators filed over 3.2 million patent applications in 2019. Despite the global epidemic, countries in the Asia-Pacific area, which is home to a huge number of patents, have shown early recovery indications, demonstrating the significance of intellectual property and management in the industrial design sector. Apart from this, patents contribute a significant share of revenue in various industries. According to Mondaq, patents contribute to nearly 80% of the overall revenue of pharmaceutical companies, and obtaining patent protection is essential to safeguard the innovative approaches used by pharma companies. Such developments are further adding to the importance of IP management software solutions.

Increasing Adoption of IP Management Services by Large Enterprises

The increasing willingness of major corporations to outsource IP management services is driving market growth. Internal IP management is a time and resource-intensive operation that necessitates significant expenditures. IP management outsourcing benefits SMEs and large corporations by increasing productivity, and profitability, safeguarding revenues and lowering costs. Thus, it is anticipated that enterprises' rising focus on securing innovations, boosting revenues, and streamlining corporate operations will propel the intellectual property services segment, supporting the market's expansion during the forecast period.

Market Restraint

Lack of Awareness about Intellectual Property Outsourcing

As the business expands, managing all potential intellectual property assets has become critical to ensuring a position in the market. Market vendors can significantly aid companies in preventing the theft of their competitive advantages. This IP management software and services vendors offer guidance in creating a more intelligent IP portfolio that may align with the corporate strategy and make the most of the IP assets.

Despite the rising importance of the value of various intangible assets, multiple businesses do not fully use IP management solutions, often owing to the lack of awareness, understanding, or concern about costs. Although firms and researchers are involved in various development and innovation fields, awareness of intellectual property rights is significantly low in multiple regions. Intellectual property protection has long been an area of interest for researchers, students, policymakers, and practitioners, lack of awareness regarding IP outsourcing limits the growth of the IP management software market.

Market Opportunities

Increasing Focus on Digitalization

With the increasing focus on digitalization, the market is anticipated to gain traction during the forecast period. For instance, in February 2020, India announced its plans to set up a digital platform for seamless application and capture of intellectual property rights. Over the past few years, India has been developing infrastructure for intellectual property rights, with the most recent step following the National IP Policy. An atmosphere that is favorable for business will result from a stronger IPR. India invests in its innovation and startup ecosystem by creating a digital platform for simplified application submission, technology transfer centers, and prototyping/proof of concept facilities. This is expected to offer significant opportunities for the market's growth.

Regional Analysis

By region, the global intellectual property management software market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa.

Asia-Pacific Dominates the Global Market

Asia-Pacific is the largest shareholder of the global intellectual property management software market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13% during the forecast period. According to the World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPO), Asia accounted for over two-thirds of all patents, trademarks, and industrial design applications in 2018, with China driving overall growth in demand for intellectual property (IP) rights. With the increasing demand for IP management in the region, the market studied shows significant mergers and acquisitions focused on increasing its brand recognition and consumer base. For instance, in January 2020, Questel, the global intellectual property software, and services company, signed the acquisition of NRI Cyber Patent in Japan, an IP Business Intelligence and Intellectual Asset Management solutions provider.

Additionally, the region has seen a rise in government initiatives supporting the worldwide patent application. For instance, the patent offices of India and Japan agreed to give Indian firms and individuals patents quickly. In November 2019, The Union Cabinet affirmed a Bilateral Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) program between the Indian Patent Office and patent offices of other interested countries.

North America is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.2% during the forecast period. In the context of pharmaceuticals, the United States and other developed countries generally support substantial patent rights to provide incentives for innovation and enable rights holders to recoup R&D and regulatory costs and invest in future innovations. According to World Intellectual Property Indicators (WIPO), IP Offices located in North America accounted for just over one-fifth (20.4%) of the world total. Comparatively, the United States had the most patent applications worldwide (621,453) among the countries in North America.

Moreover, IPR protection and enforcement have come to the forefront of business operations as a critical international trade issue for the United States. This is primarily due to the role of intellectual property in the U.S. economy and as a competitive advantage in the multilateral trade policy arena and regional and bilateral U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs). With the increasing number of patent applications and approval and the complexity around intellectual property, governments and other regional private players are using IP management software to keep the process simplified and effective for all stakeholders.

Europe is the third largest region in the global intellectual property management software market. More than 100 thousand European patent applications are filed and granted annually, making it challenging for a company to estimate if a device or a method (patented or not) falls within the scope of a third-party patent application. The growing number of international players due to the availability of new markets, diversification, and gaining competitive advantage through investments in developed regions such as Europe is also one of the major factors leading to the increasing demand for IP management software in the region.

Segmental Analysis

The global intellectual property management software market share is segmented by deployment, solution, type, and end-user. 

On the Basis of Deployment Analysis 

By deployment, the global market is segmented into on-premise and cloud.

The cloud segment accounts for the largest market share. The cloud-based solution has experienced tremendous growth in the past few years as this technology allows users to access data from remote locations. The demand for and acceptance of cloud-based solutions is driven by enterprises' growing awareness of the benefits of doing away with costly on-premise infrastructure in favor of storing and managing data in the cloud.

On the Basis of the Solution Analysis 

By solution, the global market is segmented into software and service.

The software segment accounts for the largest market share and is expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period. Thefts of intellectual property in numerous nations amounting to billions of dollars each year have made protecting intellectual property an even greater necessity. IP is often considered the most valuable asset from startups to large businesses, including Fortune 500 companies. The software that captures and manages these IPs efficiently to leverage and maximize value helping IP attorneys, in-house counsel, and small business owners, is expected to see robust growth. Furthermore, vendors in the market are expanding the customer base for their software solutions. Such factors are anticipated to contribute to market growth.

On the Basis of Type Analysis 

By type, the global market is segmented into patent intellectual property management, trademark intellectual property management, copyright intellectual property management, design intellectual property management, and other types.

Patent intellectual property management accounts for the largest market share. In the most recent few years, there has been a significant change toward the utilization of digitalization in the management of patents and intellectual property. For instance, the number of Internet of Things patents in India has surged by six during the previous five years. In June 2020, Nasscom found that more than 80% of these patents are directly related to Industry 4.0. About 5,500 Internet of Things patent applications were filed in the United States in the past five years alone, out of nearly 6,000 filed between 2009 and 2019. Emerging technologies such as blockchain and AI has created significant opportunities for the studied market. A digital IP protection firm, Bernstein Technologies GmbH, is trying to leverage blockchain to manage IPs such as patents.

On the Basis of End-User Analysis

By end-user industry, the global market is segmented into BFSI, healthcare, automotive, IT and Telecom, research institutes, and other end-user industries.

IT and Telecom account for the largest market share during the forecast period. The IT and telecom industry is a highly innovative and rapidly changing area. With the growing amount of data produced worldwide due to IoT and Internet penetration, the development of data centers increased significantly. Google Inc., expanding its data center inventory, filed a patent application for a water-based data center in August 2020. It describes a floating data center with a wave-powered generator and a wind-powered cooling system using seawater. Additionally, the growth in cloud technologies and the transition of the IT and telecom sector to cloud-based technologies led to the development of cloud-based IP management software.

Recent Developments

• July 2022 - Extending the Human Lifespan, a new report that examines the science behind extending our time on earth while also improving our quality of life, was just released, according to BioWorld, a publication of Clarivate Plc (NYSE: CVT), a global leader in providing reliable information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation. The study thoroughly examines the most recent findings, the primary biological mechanisms that can be affected pharmacologically, and the businesses creating these prospective "Fountain of Youth" candidate medications.
• June 2022 - The first-ever Top 100 New Brands report was released by Clarivate Plc (NYSE: CVT), a global leader in delivering reliable information and insights to speed up the pace of innovation. The research identifies new brands that have increased in the public eye in the last two years by using information from more than 20 million new trademark applications worldwide. These Top 100 New Brands have shown the greatest diligence in safeguarding and growing their brand presence. These brands are set to become dominant players in their sectors in the future. The analysis in the paper identifies the sectors with the highest levels of brand activity. It sheds insight into emerging brands’ novel shapes in the continually evolving global brand ecosystem.