PCT Newsletter
February 2026 | No. 02/2026
Technology diffusion under the spotlight in World IP Report 2026
New research from WIPO sheds light on the critical factors that help turn new inventions into widely adopted, impactful innovations.
The World Intellectual Property Report 2026: Technology on the Move draws on 250 years of historical data on technology use and five decades of patent data to explore changing patterns of technology diffusion.
The report finds that new innovations are spreading much more rapidly than innovation in previous eras. The time between the invention of new technologies and their first use worldwide is shrinking, and the technology use gap between advanced economies and others is narrowing for more recent technologies – especially digital technologies.
But while technologies are spreading across borders faster than ever, there remain many challenges in making technology diffusion work in developing economies and coordinated policy action is required to realize the full potential of new technologies.
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