WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DAY 2026 – IP POWERS SMALL BUSINESS, JOBS & AMERICAN INNOVATION, APRIL 25, 2026

On World Intellectual Property Day 2026, we honor the entrepreneurs, creators, and innovators driving America’s economic engine. This year’s theme: “IP and Sports – Ready, Set, Innovate” reveals the breadth of activity and industries that benefit from strong intellectual property protections – from science to sports to small businesses across sectors – and is the foundation upon which entrepreneurship and businesses of all sizes are built and sustained.

Across all 50 states, more than 127 industries rely on IP protections-including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets-to attract investment, compete globally, and create good-paying jobs in their communities. IP turns ingenuity into real economic opportunity. Today, America’s IP-intensive industries account for $7.8 trillion in GDP, representing 41% of the total, and support more than 47 million jobs.

Transformative innovation often starts small. Individual creators, startups and small businesses generate an outsized share of new patents and breakthrough ideas. Strong IP protections are what allow those ideas to become products, services and content supporting economic vibrancy and opportunity.

Without robust IP protections, that pathway is at risk. The ability to protect a brand, defend an invention, or license a trade secret is not a legal luxury. It’s the business model. From advanced manufacturing and life sciences to digital platforms and sports technology and team identities, IP incentivizes the research, enables the commercialization, and sustains the competitiveness that defines a modern American economy. Maintaining that leadership requires action. Policymakers must protect and enforce IP rights, ensure that patent and trademark systems are efficient and accessible to individual creators and small businesses, and promote fair and competitive markets in which entrepreneurs can thrive.

On this World IP Day, we call on leaders in Congress and the White House to protect the IP system that powers American innovation, because behind every patent filed, every trademark registered, and every trade secret protected is a competitive entrepreneur pursuing the next great American idea.

Signers include:

Alliance of U.S. Startups and Inventors for Jobs

American Intellectual Property Law Association

AUTM

Bayh-Dole Coalition

Center for Individual Freedom

Center for Innovation and Free Enterprise

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW)

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

Innovation Alliance

Innovation and Technology Policy Center, CAGW

Intellectual Property Owners Association

International Franchise Association

Licensing Executives Society (US and Canada) Inc.

Market Institute

National Asian Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship

National Association of Manufacturers

National LGBTQ+ and Allied Chamber of Commerce

National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce

National Small Business Association

Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council

The Latino Coalition

Trade Alliance to Promote Prosperity

U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center

U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Women Impacting Public Policy