The analysis summarizes resident and nonresident filing activity across patents, trademarks and industrial designs.
Intellectual property applications in United States in 2021 included 591,473 patent applications, 899,499 trademark applications and 59,477 industrial design applications. The largest category was trademarks, representing 58.0% of all included applications. Resident applicants accounted for 44.3% of patent filings, 61.3% of trademark filings and 36.8% of industrial design filings. Total included IP applications were equivalent to 4536.3 per 1 million people.
United States Intellectual Property Activity by Year
Data source: World Bank, World Development Indicators — Patent applications, residents (IP.PAT.RESD); Patent applications, nonresidents (IP.PAT.NRES); Trademark applications, resident, by count (IP.TMK.RSCT); Trademark applications, nonresident, by count (IP.TMK.NRCT); Industrial design applications, resident, by count (IP.IDS.RSCT); Industrial design applications, nonresident, by count (IP.IDS.NRCT); Population, total (population); Research and development expenditure, % of GDP (GB.XPD.RSDV.GD.ZS); Researchers in R&D, per million people (SP.POP.SCIE.RD.P6).
License: CC BY-4.0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
About the Indicators
Patent applications, residents. Patent applications filed with a national or regional patent office by applicants resident in the country, via the Paris Convention route or a national filing.
Patent applications, nonresidents. Patent applications filed in the country by applicants resident abroad.
Trademark applications, resident, by count. Trademark applications filed by applicants resident in the country.
Trademark applications, nonresident, by count. Trademark applications filed in the country by applicants resident abroad.
Industrial design applications, resident, by count. Industrial design applications filed by applicants resident in the country.
Industrial design applications, nonresident, by count. Industrial design applications filed in the country by applicants resident abroad.
Research and development expenditure, % of GDP. Gross domestic spending on research and development, expressed as a share of GDP.
Researchers in R&D, per million people. Professionals engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge, products, processes or systems, per million people.