Archive for August, 2007

Patents per Million – an Indicator of Inventiveness?

An article in The Economist sheds some light on the present patenting scenario, and provides an interesting perspective. It says, Inventive Japan grants more patents than any other country. In 2002-05, on average 1,213 were given out for every million people, according to data collected for 82 countries by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The corresponding figures for the United States are ab... Read More

Patent office overstretched due to increased workload – WIPO Report

The WIPO Patent Report, 2007 Edition, mentions that, Increasing demand has led to increases in workload in some patent offices, although the number of patent applications pending examination differs significantly from one office to another. The United States of America had more than 900,000 pending applications in 2005, with Japan having the next largest number of pending applications (according t... Read More

Medical Technology – fastest growing technical field, by patent applications

According to the data released in the WIPO Patent Report, 2007 Edition, The three fastest growing technical fields from 2000 to 2004 were medical technology (+32.2%), Audio-visual technology (+28.3%) and information technology (+27.7%). This is based on the number of patent applications filed from 2000 to 2004. The figures for the corresponding years are – 2000 – 55,813 2001 – 59... Read More

Is America Losing the Patenting Race?

The latest post in the McBru Blog poses this question. Quite surprising, given the fact that there is a huge surge in medical technology patents, and the Patent Office is being deluged with patent applications. An excerpt, The latest worldwide patent report came out recently. It is a fascinating document. See if you can guess who files the most patents and wins by almost every measure (such a... Read More

Florida Patent on Medical Device May Be Boon for Heart Patients

The Florida Biomedical Research Programs website reports in a press release that some good news for heart patients may be just around the corner. In the case of a heart attack, a few minutes can spell the difference between life and death. Now, a new medical device can be produced that can cut minutes or even hours off the time it takes to begin life-saving treatment. The Florida Department of Hea... Read More