The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in the UK Market Sector

This report estimates:(a) The level of UK market sector investment in knowledge assets protected by Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and(b) The impact of investment in those assets via their contribution to labour productivity growth in the UK market sector. Estimates for investment and the stock of IPR capital are based on previous work and includes new estimates for investment in artistic originals, funded by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and featured in the accompanying report.We also comment on additional spending on IP-protected goods that do not represent investments, although the coverage of this category is far from complete. Our main findings are:1) On average, between 2000 and 2008, 48% of knowledge investment in the UK market sector was protected by IPRs 2) The majority of IPR investment is on assets protected by copyright and design rights 3) In 2008 approximately 62% of the stock of knowledge assets in the UK market sector was protected by IPRs4) On average, between 1990 and 2008, 10.6% of growth in labour productivity was due to growth in capital deepening of IPR-protected assets. Comparable figures for ICT equipment and knowledge capital not protected by IPRs are 11.1% and 10.3% respectively.