“This provides hope for the future,” Peter Strömbäck, director-general of the Swedish Intellectual Property Office, said.

The index, carried out by the World IP Organisation, a UN organisation, puts Sweden ahead of countries like the US, Germany, Korea and China.

“This gives an image of how the country is performing,” Strömbäck said. “Sweden is doing well with regards to creating knowledge assets, that is to say immaterial assets, and making use of them with the help of intellectual property rights, among other things.”

Sweden invests heavily in research and aims to have high-quality universities, he explained, adding that a key reason for its success in innovation was the way it made use of the good ideas produced at these universities and turned them into concrete products or services.

“We’re good at a lot of things related to energy and the green transition,” he said.

One example of an area where Sweden is performing well is the IT sector, where Swedish innovations and companies are behind many developments in mobile phones. Another bright spot is its life science companies, which have produced important medical innovations on the back of which successful businesses have been built.

Strömbäck believes there will be even more of a focus on energy and the green transition in the future.

“If we didn’t have this power of innovation I would be worried. How would we be able to meet the climate challenges? But I’m happy now,” he said.