Key facts
- Japan's share of global AI patents has dropped from 25% to 8% over the last 20 years.
- China, the U.S., and South Korea now lead in AI patent filings.
- Generative AI patent filings have doubled between 2024 and 2025.
- SoftBank is the largest GenAI patent holder globally.
- The U.S. experienced significant growth in AI patent applications from 2023 to 2025.
Japan has fallen significantly behind the U.S. and China in the race for artificial intelligence patents, with its share of global filings shrinking from 25% to 8% over the past two decades. The country now ranks fourth in core AI fields, trailing China, the U.S., and South Korea.
Recent reports from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) highlight an accelerating pace of global AI patenting, particularly in generative AI (GenAI). GenAI inventions roughly doubled between 2024 and 2025, with over 56,000 new patent families published in those two years alone, surpassing the cumulative output of the preceding decade. GenAI now constitutes 8.7% of all AI patent activity.
China continues to lead in patent filings, publishing over 43,000 families in 2024 and 2025. The U.S. has shown substantial growth, with a 92% compound annual growth rate in patent families between 2023 and 2025. A striking development is SoftBank's emergence as the largest GenAI patent holder, with nearly 3,000 families filed primarily in 2023 and published in 2025. Alphabet leads U.S. companies in GenAI patent ownership.
Despite the surge in filings, international patent families remain a small fraction of total GenAI activity, accounting for about 9% in 2025. This is partly attributed to Chinese applicants filing domestically and the relative youth of many GenAI portfolios. As these portfolios mature, companies that have not built competitive intellectual property in overlapping areas may face future licensing or freedom-to-operate challenges.