VIRGINIA - The United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Office of the Chief Economist released a report revealing that small companies and universities led the way in developing inventions to diagnose COVID-19, as evidenced by patent applications filed at the USPTO through April 2023, a press release stated by USPTO.

The US federal government helped spur this invention, with 10.7% of COVID-19 diagnostic public filings receiving support. The National Institutes of Health provided the most assistance (about 64%), while the National Science Foundation provided the second most, at 21.59%. Although COVID-19 diagnostic invention was highly concentrated in a few technologies, 8.6% of these inventions were also applicable to the treatment of COVID-19.