Brazil has emerged as the dominant force in Latin American innovation, accounting for 45.6% of all patent applications filed in the region, according to a recent report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL).
The findings, drawn from data covering the 2016–2020 period, underscore Brazil’s leadership in a region where innovation ecosystems are still maturing. Mexico follows with 34% of regional filings, while Argentina (7.1%), Chile (5.7%), Colombia (3.5%), Peru (2.4%), and other countries (1.7%) round out the distribution.
Regional momentum — but with structural challenges
CEPAL’s report, titled Harnessing Intellectual Property for Development: Opportunities and Challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean, notes that while the region has made moderate progress in strengthening intellectual property (IP) frameworks, investment in research and development (R&D) remains comparatively low and heavily reliant on public funding and academic institutions.
“The average for Latin America and the Caribbean increased moderately between the 2011–2015 and 2016–2020 periods, suggesting a slight improvement in the number of patents relative to aggregate GDP,” the report states.
Crucially, CEPAL highlights that patent activity in the region is overwhelmingly concentrated in the manufacturing sector, making it “a reliable indicator of both national technological capabilities and cross-border knowledge flows.”
Industries with high IP intensity contribute between 12% and 16% of value added to the region’s manufacturing output and account for 12% to 13% of employment in its larger economies.
Foreign dominance — but local momentum growing
Despite the upward trend, the report paints a sobering picture of dependency: of more than 500,000 patent applications filed across nine Latin American countries between 2011 and 2020, over 85% came from foreign applicants. The United States accounted for 36.2% of those filings, and Europe for 34.7%, while applicants from Latin America itself represented just 13.5%.
However, a notable shift emerged when comparing the two five-year periods. While total foreign filings declined — with U.S. applicants down 4.5% and European applicants down 11.9% — local activity in Latin America and the Caribbean rose by 4.8%, increasing its share from 12.9% to 14.2%. This uptick was driven primarily by a surge in Brazilian filings.
Academia leads, private sector lags
Another key finding centers on the actors behind patent applications. Universities and public research institutions have become increasingly central to the region’s innovation landscape. Their share of domestic patent filings climbed from 22.4% in 2011–2015 to 29.1% in 2016–2020.
Conversely, private companies’ participation slipped from 32.1% to 25.9% over the same period. CEPAL attributes this to a persistent pattern: “National private companies and individual inventors are predominantly concentrated in sectors that do not make intensive use of patents, indicating that domestic business innovation remains focused on traditional, less complex manufacturing, leaving the public sector to generate more fundamental innovations.”
The road ahead
CEPAL concludes that while IP rights can play a crucial role in fostering innovation and facilitating the adoption of new technologies, the region must address structural gaps — notably the limited private-sector engagement in high-tech, patent-intensive industries and the heavy reliance on foreign inventions.
“The development of complementary capacities that support technology adoption, alongside stronger links between academia and industry, will be essential for Latin America to move from protecting foreign innovations to generating and commercializing its own,” the report emphasizes.
Source: Cepal
