Intellectual property rights play a key role in the knowledge-based economy. STI aims to inform the policy debate on IPRs by assessing their effects on research and innovation, diffusion of knowledge and economic performance. Activities include a project to measure and assess the impact of public sector patenting and licensing activities on research and technology transfer.

In the area of biotechnology where the OECD has worked on IPR issues for 20 years, the activity on Genetic Inventions, IPRs and Licensing Practices evaluates how licensing practices influence the progress of research, product development, and clinical use. IP concerns are also important for the establishment of a global network of Biological Resource Centres and in infectious diseases.

Statistical work on intellectual property centres on the development of a statistical infrastructure and methodology to measure and map the channels through which IP contributes to innovation in firms. A newly developed database of patent families allows the calculation of patent based indicators and provides a concordance table for patents/industries. Further work will focus on patent citations.

In the field of information technology, recent work has focused on the role and impact of IPRs in the software sector and business models as part of a larger study on the IT sector. The contribution of IPRs to business sector performance, and to the development of innovative SMEs in particular, is the subject of recent work on public policies to support business enterprise development and growth.