USPTO economists study all aspects of intellectual property (IP) to better understand the determinants of innovation and to support evidence-based policy making. The Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) leads these efforts through engagement with scholars, collaboration on research projects, and conference events. OCE also releases datasets on USPTO patents and trademarks to advance economic research on IP.
In this Economic Note we examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment, with a special focus on those industries that most intensively use various forms of intellectual property (IP). In an analysis of monthly employment data, we find that initial job losses (as a share of total employment) were lower in the IP-intensive industries than in other, non-IP-intensive industries. Recovery across all industry groups was rapid after the initial job losses, except for the performing and creative arts industries, which did not see significant improvement until the spring and summer of 2021.
For more information, read the Economic Note.
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