How RI Ranks in Generating Patents - Are We Innovative?
Monday, August 22, 2011
“Patents are an important indicator of the capacity of any organization or community to reinvent itself and to stay relevant in the 21st century,” said Saul Kaplan, founder of Business Innovation Factory and former head of the state’s Economic Development Corporation.
In 2004, New York Times columnists Tom Friedman pointed out the importance of intellectual properties when he wrote about the lack of patents being developed in the Middle East:
“According to the 2003 Arab Human Development Report, between 1980 and 1999 the nine leading Arab economies registered 370 patents (in the U.S.) for new inventions. Patents are a good measure of a society's education quality, entrepreneurship, rule of law and innovation. During that same 20-year period, South Korea alone registered 16,328 patents for inventions.”
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So how does Rhode Island compare in developing patents in the nation and to the rest of New England – in total number and on a per capita level.
In 2010, Californians developed 27,337 patents – more than 10% of the total number of US patents awarded to Americans or issued to those from around the world. The total number of US patents was 219,614 in 2010.
In New England, Massachusetts has led the region in the total number of patents. With Harvard and MIT spring boarding innovation and research and design, the Commonwealth developed more patents in 2010 than the rest of New England combined.
However, when the patents are compared on a per capita basis the intellectual firepower of each New England state is a bit surprising. Vermont, a state known for maple sugar and cheese, leads the region in the number of patents produced per capita. Vermont generated 642 patents in 2010 – 2.5 times the number produced in Rhode Island. Vermont’s technology and bioscience industries have been successful creating patents despite the state’s population is a third smaller than Rhode Island’s population.
Similarly, New Hampshire produced more than twice as many patents as Rhode Island. The granite state has a similar size population.
Other states generating approximately the same number of patents: Delaware (367), Louisiana (304), and Nebraska (214). In comparison to international producers, Rhode Island generated approximately the same number of U.S. patents as Russian Federation (272), Ireland (252), and Malaysia (202).
Biosciences Drives the Research
For Rhode Island, much of the intellectual properties now being developed are by the bioscience industry. Rhode Island has realized substantial job growth in two areas of the growing biosciences: pharmaceuticals and medical devices/equipment.
According to one report, “Rhode Island institutions received $176 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health in 2009 following strong funding increases since 2004.”
A Battelle/BIO State Bioscience 2010 report said, Rhode Island is a leader in per capita NIH funding. And, they found that total venture capital invested in Rhode Island bioscience companies during the six years (2004 to 2010) was $231 million, mainly in the biotechnology research, medical therapeutics, and human biotechnology sectors.
During the period of 2004 to 2010, Rhode Island generated 369 bioscience patents concentrated in surgical and medical instruments and drugs and pharmaceuticals.
“Brainpower is Rhode Island's best asset. How the state invests in and manages its collective intellectual assets will determine Rhode Island's future economic prosperity and capacity to create good high wage jobs for its citizens,” said Kaplan.
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