Journey to the center of innovation
Discover how our comprehensive and transparent methodology identifies the Top 100 Global Innovators.
Progress driven data
The power of convergence to create change
Our methodology is the backbone of the Top 100 Global Innovators 2025 report, ensuring accuracy and integrity. By leveraging empirical data and rigorous statistical analysis, we prioritize the quality and impact of inventions over sheer volume.
Our global perspective considers patent filings across multiple jurisdictions, providing a comprehensive view of innovation
Top 100 qualification
To qualify for the Top 100 Global Innovators, candidates must have at least 500 published inventions since 2000 and 100 granted inventions within the past five years. This rigorous process identifies around 3,000 organizations that significantly contribute to the global innovation ecosystem and are currently active.
We gather global patent data from Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI), a meticulously curated database of global patent activity. DWPI consolidates multiple patent filings into unified records, ensuring that innovation is quantified based on technical merit and enhanced through continuous human and algorithmic corrections, technical summaries and expert classification. DWPI provides unparalleled accuracy and resolution, making it an invaluable resource for analyzing and measuring researchand innovation.
From invention strength to Top 100 Global Innovator
To evaluate the strength of individual inventions each scoring factor is calculated across the database of global inventions. This approach provides a holistic, universal benchmark for patented technology, allowing individual ideas to be compared against the entire database, which evolves daily.
Each metric is assessed individually, with scores assigned based on deviations from the database-wide distribution. The scores are then combined into a single aggregated score for each invention, ready for identification of performance for qualifying candidates for Top 100 Global Innovator recognition.
Evaluation window
Annually, the program refreshes a rolling 5-year window of innovation performance from global invention data.
For 2025, this window includes inventions first published between January 1, 2019, and December 31, 2023.
Top 100 qualification
To shortlist candidates for the Top 100 Global Innovator status, we review every patent applicant for a threshold performance.
This process identifies approximately 3,000 organizations that have significantly contributed to the global innovation ecosystem and are currently active.
Invention strength
We calculate invention strength for each organization based on a combined score across factors for each invention, extracting the median for qualifying organizations.
The international factor
Qualifiers for potential Top 100 Global Innovator status are assessed based on their patent protection strategies.
For inventions within the evaluation window, we create a multiplier factor that combines the scale of two-authority granted patents and the ratio of their activity as two-authority granted patents.
This ensures that candidate organizations
are rewarded for a more global footprint of activity.
Ranking qualifiers
To produce the final ranking, we combine the international factor with the median-scoring invention strength of each organization’s inventions within the evaluation window.
This generates the final Global Innovator Score, which is ranked and sorted to determine the Top 100 Global Innovators of 2025.
Forces creating change
Data can inform decision-making, propel innovation excellence and secure competitive advantage. The Top 100 Global Innovators report utilizes Clarivate research and innovation data to chart the technical knowledge of humanity and the forces shaping the future of innovation. This process, enhanced by advanced data science techniques, ensures precision and expertise at every stage.
Derwent World Patents Index
A database of the patented ideas, DWPI records where and when inventions are protected across 60 patent-issuing states and authorities, with each idea distilled into English-language summaries and categorized into the industry, the technology and the need.
Research and development teams, IP professionals and over 40 national patent offices around the world rely on DWPI to help them find more relevant patents in less time.
Related reports
Explore more insights and reports related to the Top 100 Global Innovators 2025. These additional resources provide valuable information on technological convergence, breakthrough innovations and deeper dives into select industries.
Core of excellence
Embracing hyperconnectivity and global dynamics
The Top 100 Global Innovators 2025 report leverages the proprietary Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) to provide unparalleled insights into global innovation trends.
Discover how you can take advantage of DWPI’s comprehensive and meticulously curated patent data to make more informed business decisions and drive innovation.
