Global awareness, trust in IP growing, says WIPO survey – but some countries see fall in trust in IP contribution to economy

Image: WIPO

Worldwide awareness and trust in intellectual property (IP) systems has reached new heights, according to WIPO Pulse 2025, organised by the World Intellectual Property Organisation and claimed to be the world's most comprehensive survey of IP perception and awareness.

WIPO says the expanded survey - now reaching 35,500 respondents aged 18-65 in 74 countries - demonstrates growing global recognition of IP's critical role in protecting innovation and creativity and reveals significant increases in IP understanding across all categories of IP since the inaugural survey of 2023.

WIPO Director General Daren Tang said: “Getting good data on how the public views IP is important to ensuring that we know how to grow public support for it. The good news from our survey is that IP is increasingly winning hearts and minds all over the world. Public awareness of IP has grown and attitudes towards IP has become more positive. But there is work ahead – there are still disparities in IP awareness among certain age groups and certain types of IP remain relatively unknown.”

DG Tang added: "We have been working with the global IP community to be better at communicating the value of IP to those on the ground. This year’s WIPO Pulse results demonstrate the positive impact of our collective efforts, while providing crucial data points on where to better focus our communication and engagement efforts.”

How the survey works

WIPO Pulse 2025 measures how much people know about IP through self-reporting and knowledge tests, creating an "Awareness Index" that reveals gaps between what respondents think they know and what they actually know.

The research also examines public attitudes toward IP-protected products and services, tracks how people engage with innovation in areas like healthcare and renewable energy and evaluates public opinion on IP's economic benefits and common misunderstandings about IP rights.

IP awareness has increased across all categories

Public awareness has grown across all main IP rights categories since 2023, with trademarks and copyright growing from 30% to 36% and 38% to 44% respectively. While copyright remains the most widely understood IP right, the results indicate that people worldwide are becoming more knowledgeable about all five main IP rights, though patents and designs lag in popular understanding among the general public.

The Asia-Pacific region has made substantial progress since 2023 in raising awareness of all IP rights. The biggest leap among the IP rights surveyed in Asia – Pacific was for geographical indications which increased from 26% to 35% followed by copyright and trademarks going from 32% to 40% and 26% to 34% respectively.

Western European also increased their overall IP awareness levels. The most important increase was awareness of trademarks with a 5% increase going from 30% to 35%.

However, while Asia-Pacific and Western Europe made progress since 2023, they are still on the lowest level of awareness when compared to the rest of the regions in the study.

Access the complete WIPO Pulse 2025 report and detailed findings

Awareness and Perception Among Women and Youth

Women and young people were traditionally underserved by the IP system, so they have been important target groups to survey.

The results show that the Asia-Pacific region drives the overall increase in global awareness, showing remarkable progress among both women and youth. In Asia-Pacific states, women's awareness increased across all five IP rights, with copyright and trademark awareness rising from 31% to 40% and 26% to 34% respectively.

Youth in the same region demonstrated similar gains, with copyright awareness climbing 9 percentage points from 27% to 36%, while patents, trademarks and geographical indications each saw 7-percentage-point increases (16% to 23%, 24% to 31%, and 24% to 31% respectively).

Western European states also recorded positive trends: women's trademark awareness grew from 29% to 35% and copyright from 41% to 44%, while youth awareness increased across all five IP rights, most notably in trademarks (20% to 30%) and copyright (25% to 34%).

However, youth awareness declined in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe, highlighting the need for continued targeted engagement in these regions.

Strong trust in IP rights

Strong global consensus is emerging on IP's fundamental value, with people across diverse economies consistently recognizing IP rights' power to ensure fair compensation for creators and build consumer confidence. When asked to rate their agreement with key IP attributes, respondents scored on average around 4 (from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree)) across all tested categories, indicating widespread agreement that spans from basic IP protection.

Confidence in IP's Role in the Economy

Public confidence in the positive impact of IP on the economy remains strong overall on a global level, with positive perceptions remaining relatively stable at 64%.

However, respondents from Western European states, Australia and North America reported a significant decline in agreement with various statements relating to the benefits of IP from 2023.

The report says:

“In Western European and other states, agreement with the perceived economic benefits has decreased significantly across all measured statements in the survey. This decline is largely driven by shifting consumer opinions in the United States concerning the benefits of IP rights for the national economy.”

However, when respondents were asked if they agreed with statements highlighting the challenges of IP to the economy, respondents from Western European states, Australia and North America were less concerned about these challenges than they were two years ago.

Respondents from the Asia-Pacific region also reported less concern about these challenges, although to a lesser degree than those in Europe, North America, and Australia.