Title page

Contents

Foreword 5

Acknowledgments 6

Executive summary 7

The state of technology development across the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 9

Analyzing the spread of SDG-related technologies 16

Sustainable relevance within technology sectors 16

Sustainable relevance within technology fields 19

Mapping the SDGs to technology areas 21

Global SDG patent trends and considerations 23

Who are the patent applicants driving sustainable innovation? 26

United States 26

Europe 30

China 33

Japan 36

Republic of Korea 39

Exploring the role of academia and research organizations in supporting innovation for the SDGs 42

Conclusion 46

Appendices 47

A.1. Data source 47

A.2. Patent-to-SDG mapping methodology 48

A.3. Foreign-oriented patent families (international patent families) 50

A.4. Innovation Maturity Matrix 51

A.5. Relative development of technology areas 52

A.6. Selecting geographical regions for analysis 53

Table 1. Top 25 patent owners from the United States based on number of SDG-related active international patent families, 2000-2023 29

Table 2. Top 25 patent owners from Europe based on number of SDG-related active international patent families, 2000-2023 32

Table 3. Top 25 patent owners from China based on number of SDG-related active international patent families, 2000-2023 35

Table 4. Top 25 patent owners from Japan based on number of SDG-related active international patent families, 2000-2023 38

Table 5. Top 25 patent owners from the Republic of Korea based on number of SDG-related active international patent families, 2000-2023 41

Table 6. Top 25 patent owners from academia and research organizations based on number of SDG-related active international patent families, 2000-2023 44

Table 7. An overview of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 49

Figure 1. Number of active patent families associated with each of the 17 SDGs 9

Figure 2. Number of global SDG-related active patent families (largest to smallest), 2000-2023 11

Figure 3. Share of global active patent families attributed to each SDG (largest to smallest), 2000-2023 12

Figure 4. Innovation Maturity Matrix for SDG-related patent families, 2000-2023 14

Figure 5. Exploring the 100 SDG-linked technologies 15

Figure 6. Number and share of SDG-related active patent families in each of the five higher level WIPO technology sectors, 2000-2023 17

Figure 7. Comparing the share of SDG-related active patent families in each of the five higher level WIPO technology sectors to the compound annual growth rate... 18

Figure 8. Share of SDG-related active patent families in WIPO technology fields, 2000-2023 19

Figure 9. Comparing the share of SDG-related active patent families in each WIPO technology field to the compound annual growth rate (CAGR), 2018-2023 20

Figure 10. Comparing the share of SDG-related active patent families as a proportion of the total of each WIPO technology field 22

Figure 11. Comparing the absolute number and share of SDG-related active international patent families by geographical patent coverage (active filing authority),... 24

Figure 12. Comparing the absolute number and share of SDG-related active international patent families by inventor location, 2000-2023 25

Figure 13. Top 25 patent owners from the United States based on number of SDG-related active international patent families, 2000-2023 27

Figure 14. Comparing the top 25 patent owners from the United States by share of SDG-related patents and compound annual growth rate (CAGR), 2018-2023 28

Figure 15. Top 25 patent owners from Europe based on number of SDG-related active international patent families, 2000-2023 30

Figure 16. Comparing the top 25 patent owners from Europe by share of SDG-related patents and compound annual growth rate (CAGR), 2018-2023 31

Figure 17. Top 25 patent owners from China based on number of SDG-related active international patent families, 2000-2023 33

Figure 18. Comparing the top 25 patent owners from China by share of SDG-related patents and compound annual growth rate (CAGR), 2018-2023 34

Figure 19. Top 25 patent owners from Japan based on the number of SDG-related active international patent families, 2000-2023 36

Figure 20. Comparing the top 25 patent owners from Japan by share of SDG-related patents and compound annual growth rate (CAGR), 2018-2023 37

Figure 21. Top 25 patent owners from the Republic of Korea based on number of SDG-related active international patent families, 2000-2023 39

Figure 22. Comparing the top 25 patent owners from the Republic of Korea by share of SDG-related patents and compound annual growth rate (CAGR), 2018-2023 40

Figure 23. Top 25 patent owners from academia and research organizations based on number of SDG-related active international patent families, 2000-2023 42

Figure 24. Comparing the top 25 patent owners from academia and research organizations by share of SDG-related patents and compound annual growth rate... 43

Figure 25. Comparing the proportion of international patent families for each the top 25 patent owners from academia and research organizations with each SDG 45

Figure 26. Share of active patent families by number of filing authorities 50

Figure 27. Defining the Innovation Maturity Matrix 51

Figure 28. Number of active patent families in each of the 35 WIPO technology fields, 2000-2023 52

Figure 29. Share of active international patent families by filing authority 53