Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Using Patent Activity to Find Emerging R&D Hotspots
London-based consultancy Innovaro, whose monthly Innovation Update newsletter is one of my favorite sources of critical insight, published an article yesterday on "Global Innovation Hot Spots".
The article argues that while there are many qualitative and quantitative indicators that point to various up-and-coming hubs of innovation, patenting activity is a "primary and hence critical source of underlying foresight that can help guide R&D location priorities".
As they seek to identify the most relevant innovation centres to their specific interests, some organisations see that, rather than responding to government coordinated positioning, media commentary and FDI data, a far more pragmatic way to see where the real hot spots for R&D are around the world is to look at patent activity and discern where in the world truly inventive innovation activity is occurring: Recent research highlights some revealing insights:
First off, by looking at the total number of triadic patent families – sets of patents at the European, US and Japan Patent Offices – it is clear that there is a strong upward trend with more than twice as many patents now than in the late 80’s. When triadic patent families are normalised by total population then Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands are the five most inventive countries in recent years. However when you look at a more detailed geographic level, at regions rather than countries, more specific centres of R&D activity are evident.
For PCT filings in the US, the vast majority come from a few select regions – Silicon Valley providing 11.7% of total US applications with New York and Boston close behind. In Europe, the most patent intensive regions are largely located in the centre of Europe with four areas of Germany – Stuttgart, Munich, Dusseldorf and Rhein-Main being in the top 5: Paris being the other. In Asia the great majority of current patent activity comes from Tokyo, Kanagawa and Osaka in Japan and Seoul in Korea. The province of Guangdong is the most patent productive area in China – ahead of Beijing and Shanghai, while in India the most intensive areas are Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh – driven by Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad respectively. Taken in terms of total PCT filings by region, Tokyo, Silicon Valley and New York are top overall - the South East of England comes in at 18th.
Link to Innovaro Update.