Recession’s latest victim: U.S. innovation (via davemorin)
Interesting fact, but I’m dubious of suggesting that patents immediately constitute innovation in any economic sense. They’re often the result of the work of academics - work that isn’t necessarily commercialised. But “innovation” in a sense that impacts on consumer spending isn’t necessarily patentable.
There’s nothing scientifically groundbreaking about, for example, when supermarkets first starting selling mobile phone contracts alongside tins of baked beans, or when Richard Branson decided it’d be nice to open a chain of cool record shops. But it’s this sort of innovation - fresh, new thinking, which is sometimes often quite simple - that helps the economy, not necessarily just patents on a new way of artificially prompting algae growth, or whatever sort of thing a post-grad might get a patent for.
(That might sound flippant - I know a lot of patents are worthwhile and create huge commercial innovation, but simply my point is that it’s disingenuous to suggest that patents alone are a barometer of innovation).
