Friday, December 11, 2009
Recession's latest victim: U.S. innovation
U.S. innovation slowed this year for the first time in 13 years as the recession cut into budgets, and costs to protect inventions rose. The number of patent filings in the United States fell 2.3% in 2009 to 485,500 from 496,886 last year, according to a preliminary estimate by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. That makes 2009 the first year since 1996 in which businesses and inventors filed fewer patents year over year. At the same time, U.S. patents issued to inventors and businesses in foreign nations jumped 6.3% for the year. This should be a large concern for us considering that part of the demise of most of the failed economic systems we have learned was a lack of innovation and technological advancements.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Innovation is critical for the long-run. I think that it is not very bad that innovation slowed down during this year. It is important to innovate, of course, but it is more important to remain solvent and remain in business.
I agree with Brandon that this decline in innovation and invention should be a large concern. In the book "Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism," the main thesis is that the key to having a long-term, sustainable economy is innovation and entrepreneurship. Also, as environmental factors become a larger concern, innovation will become vital as we rely on ways to prevent pollution while continuing growth.
Post a Comment