GenAI Innovation Soaring, With Patent Activity Nearly Tripling in Two Years

Geneva, July 14, 2026
PR/2026/957

The generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) patent landscape has reached a new milestone, with more new patents published in 2024 and 2025 than in the entire preceding ten years combined, according to new data published today by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Published GenAI patent families – a widely used measure of new inventions – rose from approximately 14,000 in 2023 to over 37,800 in 2025. More than 56,000 new GenAI patent families were published in 2024 and 2025 combined, exceeding the cumulative output of the period from 2014 to 2023. GenAI now accounts for 8.7 per cent of all AI-related patent family publications, up from 6.1 per cent in 2023 and 4.2 per cent in 2017.

The findings come from the latest edition of WIPO's new Technology SPARK (Short Pieces of Analysis, Research and Knowledge) report, which provides the most current picture of where GenAI innovation is happening, who is driving it, and which technologies are at its leading edge.

The report also reveals that the race to protect generative AI inventions is increasingly being led by large multinational enterprises operating across diverse industries.

Japan’s SoftBank is the world’s leading GenAI patent applicant, publishing nearly 3,000 patent families during 2024 and 2025. This is followed by China's Tencent Holdings, Ping An Insurance Group and Baidu, alongside research institutions and infrastructure companies. Tech giants Alphabet, Microsoft and IBM from the United States also feature in the top ten.

Our data shows that Gen-AI patents are no longer just being filed by tech companies but also by large enterprises in areas like finance, telecommunications, infrastructure and other digital services. While the initial impact of Gen-AI has been on content, the next frontier will be in its impact on the way we innovate.

WIPO Director General Daren Tang

Six of the world’s top ten GenAI patent applicants are based in China, which remains the world's largest source of GenAI patent publications by a substantial margin, with over 43,000 patent families published by China-based inventors in 2024 and 2025. China's compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for GenAI patent families between 2023 and 2025 stands at 64 per cent.

The United States recorded a 92 percent CAGR over the same period, as the wave of commercial GenAI development by American companies began to translate into accelerating patent activity. Japan recorded the highest relative growth rate of any top inventor location – a 210 per cent CAGR – rising from fourth to third place globally.

Germany has overtaken the United Kingdom as Europe's leading GenAI inventor location, with an 85 per cent CAGR. Canada and Switzerland also recorded triple-digit growth rates (109 per cent CAGR, and 124 per cent, retrospectively). Seven of the world’s top 10 inventor locations published more GenAI patent families in the last two years than in the entire preceding decade.

The findings underscore the growing strategic importance of intellectual property in the GenAI economy. For policymakers, businesses and IP professionals monitoring of patenting data provides valuable insight into where innovation is accelerating, which technologies are gaining traction and how competitive dynamics are evolving in one of the fastest-moving fields of innovation ever observed.