The New Rentier Age: How Intellectual Property Is Replacing Industrial Capitalism

By Sophia Zhou Jul. 5, 2025

Economic power once derived from factories and oil wells. Today, it emanates from patents, code, and copyright. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recorded over 3.5 million patent filings and 12.9 million trademark registrations in 2024, a tenfold increase since the 1980s. Intellectual property (IP) has become the new engine of rentier capitalism—a system where wealth accrues not through production, but through permission.

The Ascendance of Intangible Assets

By 2023, intangible assets accounted for over 90% of the S&P 500’s market capitalization. Software licenses, brand rights, and data patents now generate more global profit than manufacturing combined. Yet the macroeconomic effects of this shift remain underexamined. While industrial capital once distributed wealth through employment and wages, intangible capital concentrates it through exclusivity.

The IMF’s Global Value Chain Reassessment (2024) found that 68% of total corporate profits in high-income nations now originate from IP royalties, subscription models, and brand markups. This concentration creates “rentier asymmetry”: value extraction decoupled from productive contribution.

Patent Hoarding and Innovation Slowdown

Contrary to their purpose, modern patents increasingly inhibit innovation. In biotechnology and AI, overlapping claims—known as “patent thickets”—force startups to license dozens of micro-patents before developing new products. The OECD Innovation Policy Review (2023) estimates that patent litigation costs in AI doubled between 2018 and 2023, reaching US$22.4 billion.

Large firms exploit this dynamic strategically. IBM and Qualcomm, for example, derive over 30% of annual revenue from licensing, effectively monetizing ownership rather than advancement. This “defensive capitalism” rewards control over creation.

The Global South’s Intellectual Dependence

The geography of IP mirrors colonial trade flows. Over 85% of patent applications originate from the U.S., EU, China, and Japan, while Africa collectively contributes under 0.5%. The result is “knowledge dependency”—developing economies pay recurring royalties for technology developed elsewhere. In 2024, African nations spent US$14.3 billion on pharmaceutical licensing fees, exceeding total public health budgets of 12 countries combined.

Even local innovation becomes captive to global frameworks. The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement locks low-income countries into patent protection standards that limit affordable replication. The COVID-19 vaccine debates revealed this inequity: despite manufacturing capacity, nations like India and South Africa were barred from generic production until 2023.

Data as the New Patent

As AI systems commercialize, training data has become a new form of proprietary capital. Companies now file “data copyright claims” over curated datasets. OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic collectively hold over 800 data licensing agreements. The commodification of data enshrines informational enclosure—turning human knowledge into rent.

This data rentierism exacerbates inequality: while corporations monetize global information, the contributors—users, artists, and smaller developers—receive none of the returns. The world is witnessing the digital equivalent of land privatization in the 19th century, except this time the commons being enclosed is human cognition.

Policy Reimagining: From Protection to Participation

If intellectual property is to serve innovation rather than inhibit it, its architecture must evolve. The World Bank’s 2024 Knowledge Commons Initiative proposes an “open licensing dividend”—requiring patent holders benefiting from public research funding to release non-commercial usage rights. Similarly, the EU’s Horizon Access Mandate (2025) will make open-access publishing a condition of subsidy eligibility.

Ultimately, post-industrial policy must shift from protecting ideas to democratizing them. The value of innovation lies not in ownership, but in diffusion. Until IP regimes recognize that creativity thrives on circulation, the knowledge economy will remain a gilded monopoly masquerading as meritocracy.

Works Cited

“World Intellectual Property Indicators 2024.” World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 2024. https://www.wipo.int

 “Global Value Chain Reassessment.” International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2024. https://imf.org

 “Innovation Policy Review 2023.” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2023. https://oecd.org

 “Knowledge Commons Initiative Report.” World Bank Group, 2024. https://worldbank.org

 “TRIPS and Development Report.” World Trade Organization (WTO), 2024. https://wto.org

 “Data Licensing Trends.” Stanford Cyber Policy Center, 2024. https://cyber.stanford.edu

 “Patent Litigation and Economic Growth.” Harvard Kennedy School Mossavar-Rahmani Center, 2024. https://hks.harvard.edu

 “Horizon Access Mandate Overview.” European Commission Research Directorate-General, 2025. https://ec.europa.eu

 “IP and Rentier Capitalism.” The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), 2024. https://eiu.com

 “Pharmaceutical Royalties in Africa.” African Development Bank (AfDB), 2024. https://afdb.org