National innovation strategy: scorecard - 2024 update

3. Patent Application to the UK Intellectual Property Office Granted

3.1 Ecosystem

• Concept

3.2 Performance Assessment

• Performance Worsening

3.3 Description

• Patents are traditionally used to track innovation and allow for comparison across different geographies.
• “Patents Granted” has been selected as the metric as it is a more concrete indicator than "Patent Applications".
• For regional comparisons, the patents granted per one million people were calculated based on the latest National Records of Scotland (NRS) and Office for National Statistics (ONS) mid-population estimates.

3.4 Time Series

• The number of patents granted fell in Scotland in 2023, with patents granted declining 20.8% to 274 patents in 2023 (from 346 in 2022). A drop in the number of patents granted in 2023 is seen in all UK regions (except Yorkshire & Humber), with the fall in Scotland amongst the highest across UK regions.

3.5 Current Performance

• According to UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) data, 274 patents granted in 2023 have first named applicants with Scottish addresses.
• Estimated that 50.3 patents granted per million population.
• 1.4 patents granted in 2023 per billion GDP in Scotland.

3.6 Previous Year Performance

• 346 patents granted in 2022.
• Patents granted in 2023 fell by 20.8% from 2022 levels.
• In 2022, 63.5 patents were granted per million population.
• In 2022, 1.8 patents were granted per billion GDP in Scotland.

3.7 UK Regional Benchmark

• Scotland in 2^nd UK quartile for patents per million population.

3.8 International Benchmark

• The EU27 achieved a patent granted per billion GDP of 2.6, while Scotland achieved 1.4.
• Scotland in 2^nd EU27 quartile for number of patents granted.

3.9 About the Data

• Current Dataset: Intellectual Property Office (IPO): Facts & Figures: Patents, Trademarks, Designs & Hearings: 2023 (Released 20 June 2024)
• Next Release: June 2025