Innovation to Safeguard Workers’ Health: Key Findings from the 2025 WIPO Report on OHS Technologies
New analysis from WIPO underscores how innovation and intellectual property are central to reducing workplace risks and improving global health outcomes, with OHS technologies rapidly advancing across prediction, detection, and protection domains.
[1][2]Context and origins
The report builds on WIPO’s Development Agenda and the dedicated project “Reducing Work-related Accidents and Occupational Diseases through Innovation and Intellectual Property,” proposed by Tunisia and approved by the CDIP at its 29th session (CDIP/29/11).
[2][1]Scope and purpose
The 2025 Patent Landscape Report on Occupational Health and Safety reviews nearly two decades of technological progress designed to anticipate, detect, and mitigate workplace hazards, mapping global patenting to reveal key actors and trends.
[1][2]Why patents matter
Patent data provide a clear lens on leading countries, companies, and research institutions shaping OHS innovation, enabling evidence-based insights for policy and investment decisions in worker protection technologies.
[2][1]Global burden and urgency
Workplace injuries and diseases remain a major global challenge, reinforcing the need to shift from reactive responses to prevention through advanced technologies and data-driven safety systems.
[1][2]Innovation pillars
- Prediction: Hazard forecasting using AI and machine learning to flag risks before incidents occur, exemplified by sensor-equipped smart helmets that warn workers via sound or vibration. [2][1]
- Detection: Real-time monitoring through wearables and environmental sensing (e.g., gas, fire, noise, radiation, location-based safety) to enable swift responses, especially in high-risk sectors. [1][2]
- Protection: Technologies reducing injury severity, from PPE to ventilation systems, with pandemic-era growth in respiratory protection and sustained interest in comfortable, wearable safeguards. [2][1]
Illustrative quote
“Patents provide a valuable lens through which to identify leading countries, companies, and research institutions that are driving innovation in this field.”[1]
Geographic leadership
China leads patenting across prediction, detection, and protection categories, with significant activity also from the Republic of Korea, the United States, and European countries pursuing protection across multiple jurisdictions.
[2][1]Project linkage
This landscape is a key output of the DA project endorsed by CDIP, aligning technology insights with policy aims to reduce work-related harm through innovation and strategic use of IP tools.
[1][2]Author’s summary
WIPO’s 2025 OHS patent landscape shows innovation accelerating across prediction, detection, and protection, spotlighting global leaders and technologies that pivot workplace safety from reactive responses to prevention-driven systems.
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