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Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual Property Law is a research topic within Law. Science Explorer counts 9k research works in it since 1950. 10.4% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers a wide range of topics related to intellectual property law and policy analysis, including trademark law, copyright law, patents, fair use, design protection, international trade, consumer rights, and legal harmonization. The papers explore various legal mechanisms, case studies, and empirical analyses in the field of intellectual property law.

  • Trademark Law
  • Copyright Law
  • Intellectual Property Rights
  • Trade Marks
  • Patents
  • Fair Use
  • Design Protection
  • International Trade
  • Consumer Rights
  • Legal Harmonization
Research works
9k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
936
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.4%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+71%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
47% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Intellectual Property Law

Which countries lead Intellectual Property Law research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (732 and 242 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 732 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 242 works
  3. 3 Germany 91 works
  4. 4 China 90 works
  5. 5 France 83 works
  6. 6 Canada 82 works
  7. 7 India 81 works
  8. 8 Indonesia 58 works
  9. 9 Netherlands 57 works
  10. 10 Belgium 49 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 46.8%United Kingdom: 15.5%Germany: 5.8%China: 5.8%6 others listed: 26.2%47%largest
United States732 · 46.8%United Kingdom242 · 15.5%Germany91 · 5.8%China90 · 5.8%6 others listed410 · 26.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Intellectual Property Law research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Iowa publishes the most Intellectual Property Law research, followed by The Ohio State University and University of Michigan.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of IowaUnited States 20 works
  2. 2 The Ohio State UniversityUnited States 18 works
  3. 3 University of MichiganUnited States 16 works
  4. 4 University of AmsterdamNetherlands 15 works
  5. 5 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 15 works
  6. 6 University of TorontoCanada 13 works
  7. 7 Université de MontpellierFrance 12 works
  8. 8 University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 12 works
  9. 9 New York UniversityUnited States 11 works
  10. 10 Université de LyonFrance 10 works

What are the most cited papers in Intellectual Property Law?

The most cited paper in Intellectual Property Law is "Private power, public law the globalization of intellectual property rights" (Susan K. Sell, 2003), with 569 citations. Next come "Arts. 26/39 CISG–UP–PECL, by Camilla Baasch Andersen [Denmark]" (346) and "The Theory of Domestic Content Protection and Content Preference" (292).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Private power, public law the globalization of intellectual property rights Susan K. Sell 2003 569
2 Arts. 26/39 CISG–UP–PECL, by Camilla Baasch Andersen [Denmark] Camilla Baasch Andersen · Cambridge University Press eBooks Book chapter 8 Jan 2007 346
3 The Theory of Domestic Content Protection and Content Preference Gene M. Grossman · The Quarterly Journal of Economics Nov 1981 292
4 Some Economics of Trade Secret Law David D. Friedman, William M. Landes, Richard A. Posner · The Journal of Economic Perspectives Open access Feb 1991 291
5 Relative Clauses, Licensing, and the Nature of the Derivation David Lebeaux Book chapterOpen access 26 Dec 1991 250
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Intellectual Property Law research done?

The largest centres of Intellectual Property Law research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), New York (United States), Washington D.C. (United States) and Munich (Germany).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 61 works
  2. 2 New YorkUnited States 39 works
  3. 3 Washington D.C.United States 33 works
  4. 4 MunichGermany 25 works
  5. 5 BeijingChina 22 works
  6. 6 ChicagoUnited States 22 works
  7. 7 Iowa CityUnited States 20 works
  8. 8 AmsterdamNetherlands 20 works
  9. 9 TorontoCanada 20 works
  10. 10 ColumbusUnited States 19 works
See Intellectual Property Law on the map

Where is the best place to study Intellectual Property Law?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Amsterdam, University of Oxford and Utrecht University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 10.01%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Amster…Utrecht UniversityNew York UniversityUniversity of Oxford
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of AmsterdamNetherlands 85.528.7%13.1×15 +3.0%
2University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 55.76.3%5.5×15 +174.0%
3Utrecht UniversityNetherlands 55.121.6%6.7×9 +450.8%
4New York UniversityUnited States 52.821.3%5.0×11 +48.8%
5The Ohio State UniversityUnited States 48.16.4%7.8×18 -
6University of MichiganUnited States 47.45.8%5.3×16 +224.1%
7University of IowaUnited States 46.20.0%21.0×20 -
8University of TorontoCanada 45.45.1%3.3×13 +283.9%
9University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 43.44.6%6.9×12 +367.1%
10Université de MontpellierFrance 41.50.3%18.8×12 +90.7%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Intellectual Property Law, country by country

Is Intellectual Property Law research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 71% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Intellectual Property Law.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Intellectual Property Law as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.016% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%Intellectual Property Law0.014% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Intellectual Property Law over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Intellectual Property Law10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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