Innovation Asset Blog

Copyright industries bolster US economy

According to a new report from the International Intellectual Property Alliance, jobs involving intellectual property comprise 6 percent of the U.S. GDP. The research said copyright industries added $1 trillion to the U.S. economy in a year. The copyright industries are those involved in the creation, production, distribution and exhibition of copyright materials - from newspapers and books to TV and radio.

These industries alone created about 5.4 million jobs for U.S. workers, or approximately 5 percent of all private work. On average, these jobs pay one-third more than the average salary. The field is growing at an aggregated annual rate of 4.7 percent, or approximately twice the rate of growth for the U.S. economy overall.

These statistics show the value of copyright-related industries, which are only a slice of the intellectual property industries in the U.S. as a whole. If the numbers were run again to take innovation-based industries that rely on patents into account, they would be much higher, demonstrating yet again the crucial role intellectual property management plays for the American economy.

Peter Ackerman

Peter Ackerman

Founder & CEO, Innovation Asset Group, Inc.