UN's World Intellectual Property Organization: First-Ever Figures on Value of "Intangible Capital" in Manufactured Goods: $5.9 Trillion

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GENEVA, Nov. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

A groundbreaking new study

[http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2017/article_0012.html] by the World

Intellectual Property Organization gives the first figures ever to be publicly

released on the value of "intangible capital," such as branding, design and

technology, in manufactured goods.

This report by WIPO, a UN agency based in Geneva, Switzerland, shows that

intangible capital in manufactured goods accounted for about $5.9 trillion in

2014, contributing twice as much as buildings, machinery and other forms of

tangible capital. This underscores the growing use of the intellectual property

tools that protect intangible and related assets in the worldwide economy.

The "World Intellectual Property Report 2017: Intangible Capital in Global

Value Chains" (WIPR 2017) looks at how much income accrues to labor, tangible

capital and intangible capital in global value chain production across all

manufacturing activities, representing one quarter of total global economic

output, with case studies focusing on coffee, solar panels and smartphones.

"Intangible capital will increasingly determine the fate and fortune of firms

in today's global value chains. It is behind the look, feel, functionality and

general appeal of the products we buy and it determines success in the

marketplace," said WIPO Director General Francis Gurry. "Intellectual property,

in turn, is the means by which companies secure the competitive advantage

flowing from their intangible capital."

Other WIPR 2017 findings include:

- Intangible capital accounted, on average, for 30.4 percent of the total

value of manufactured goods sold throughout 2000-2014.

- The intangible capital share rose from 27.8 percent in 2000 to 31.9 percent

in 2007, but has remained stable since then.

- Overall, income from intangibles increased by 75 percent from 2000 to 2014

in real terms, amounting to USD 5.9 trillion in 2014.

- Three product groups - food products, motor vehicles and textiles - account

for close to 50 percent of the total income generated by intangible capital in

the manufacturing global value chains.

Read the full press release:

http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2017/article_0012.html

Source: World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)