China-based inventors are dominating the generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) patent landscape, significantly outpacing their counterparts in the US, South Korea, Japan, and India, according to a new WIPO report. The ‘WIPO Patent Landscape Report on Generative AI’ highlights 54,000 GenAI inventions from the past decade, with over 25% emerging just in the last year.

GenAI, which enables the creation of text, images, music, and computer code, is being utilised in various products including chatbots like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Baidu’s ERNIE. From 2014 to 2023, China produced more than 38,000 GenAI inventions, six times more than the second-place US. India, ranking fifth, showed the highest average annual growth rate among the top five at 56%.

WIPO Director General Daren Tang remarked, ‘GenAI is a game-changing technology with the potential to transform how we work, live, and play. This report helps policymakers and innovators understand and shape its development for our common benefit, ensuring human-centric innovation.’

Key findings of the report include:

• 54,000 GenAI-related inventions and over 75,000 scientific publications from 2014 to 2023 
• An eightfold increase in GenAI patents since 2017 
• In 2023 alone, over 25% of all GenAI patents and 45% of scientific papers were published 
• GenAI patents represent 6% of all AI patents globally.

Top GenAI patent applicants are led by Tencent (2,074 inventions), Ping An Insurance (1,564), Baidu (1,234), followed by IBM, Alibaba Group, and others. Image and video data dominate GenAI patents (17,996 inventions), followed by text (13,494) and speech/music (13,480). 

The diverse applications of GenAI patents span life sciences, document management, business solutions, manufacturing, transportation, security, and telecommunications. Future applications could expedite drug development, automate document management, enhance retail assistance systems, and optimise public transportation and autonomous driving systems.

This analysis uses simple patent families as a proxy for individual inventions, complementing WIPO’s 2019 Technology Trends publication on Artificial Intelligence. For businesses and innovators, the complexity of navigating the global patent landscape is intensified by the fast-evolving nature of GenAI technologies. It is essential for companies to have a robust IP strategy that not only ensures comprehensive protection of their inventions but also strategically positions them in the global market.

 Vakilsearch is dedicated to assisting businesses in navigating the intricate patent landscape. Our expert services encompass patent search, drafting, filing, and prosecution to help innovators secure their intellectual property rights effectively. By partnering with Vakilsearch, companies can ensure that their GenAI innovations are well-protected, enabling them to focus on advancing their technological capabilities and maintaining a competitive edge in the market. Our tailored solutions are designed to support businesses in leveraging their IP assets for sustainable growth and innovation.