Comments on: Global Sources of American Innovation

By: Michael Wells

Michael Wells — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:11:49 +0000

Something that strikes me is that the resident and non-resident lines track each other pretty closely. Yes, non-residents are getting almost half of patents, way out of proportion to their numbers, but the peaks and valleys are the same as residents.

The increase is fairly steady until 1998 when it jumps abruptly, levels off from 2001 to 2004, drops in 05 and rebounds in 06. What are those changes about? Is 98 to 01 the tech bubble?

Looking back a few posts, “What’s happening to American Innovation”, applications started climbing in 1998 and haven’t slowed, while patents granted have gone up & down. Is this because of poorer quality applications or slower processing in the patent office? Or are the applications so innovative the patent office doesn’t understand them? Or was the patent office staff downsized during the Bush years?

By: Creative Class » Blog Archive » Innovation and Economic Crises - Creative Class

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 15:01:03 +0000

[...] With the help of my MPI team, I’ve tracked patent data since 1980, examined patent trends for U.S. resident and foreign, non-resident inventors, and looked at the geographic distribution of patenting.Overall, the trend [...]

By: Creative Class » Blog Archive » The New Geography of American Innovation - Creative Class

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:51:02 +0000

[...] Innovation The past couple of days, I’ve looked at the trends in overall patents and nationality of inventor. Today I turn to the regional distribution of innovation across U.S. regions.It’s well-known [...]

By: RS

RS — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:59:29 +0000

Seems to me like the figure shows that patents granted to US residents have approximately doubled over the shown period while those for non-US residents have approximately tripled. Still yet, this has occurred under conditions where the patent acceptance rate has fallen by approximately 1/3 (beginning to systemically fall in 1999) and across at time period at which the US has become more concentrated in industries with less theoretical reason to patent in the first place (i.e. service sector).

To me, this seems to be an extraordinary increase, espeically given the circumstances. As well, given that US population has not doubled (residents) or tripled (non-residents) over the period 1980-2006, I wonder how the per-capita patent rate could have possibly risen slower than population as others have suggested… that seems counterintuitive.

By: Curt

Curt — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:49:46 +0000

I have to wonder about the ‘quality’ of the patents being applied for and granted. Certainly I’ve heard stories about what seem to be very trivial software features being turned into patents; it’s hard to say without good data whether this is a major factor overall or not…

By: Dale B. Halling

Dale B. Halling — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:41:38 +0000

Your data also shows that there has not been extraordinary increase in the number of patents. As the US becomes an information economy, you would expect a greater number of people to be involved in inventive activities. This should result in an increasing rate of patents. However, my studies show that patents have increased less than the rate of GDP and patents to US residents have increased at a rate less than the population.

For information on the Laws of Innovation see http://hallingblog.com/2009/07/15/natural-laws-of-innovation-1/

By: Michael Wells

Michael Wells — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:11:42 +0000

Fascinating if not unexpected. I wonder if the same percentages would hold in Canada and other high immigration countries?

And while it’s not good for the American economy, it might not be an entirely bad thing for commercialization to boost developing economies or for immigrants to be a link between US and emerging countries like China, India, etc.

By: Creative Class: Global Sources Of American Innovation | Lies My Gantt Chart Told Me

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:39:16 +0000

[...] Great data on foreign born innovation via patent filings over at Creative Class (see article here). This really makes the case for having an open immigrate policy rather than a closed border one. [...]