With China growing ever stronger in every way, people in Washington tend to turn the other cheek. After all, according to them the USA is still the most innovative country in the world. We have the most patents filed each year and that innovative spirit will keep us ahead of the game, despite that we are loosing out in many other areas.
While there is some truth to this, we should not get to comfortable Last year the USA filed 44,855 patents with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a 1.7% decline from last year. Although much less than the USA, China filed a respectable 12,337 patents with WIPO. However, that is a 56% increase from last year. Even more disturbing is that this is America's 3rd consecutive year of declining patents. Between 2003-2009, while the US only has a net 5.5% patent growth, China has maintained at 26.1%. It is predicted that China will surpass the USA this year in total patents.While China's investment in science and technology grew by 20% as proportion of GDP from 1999-2006, while America has stagnated with only 1% growth.
This is a very disturbing trend. Perhaps our superiority in such fields isn't as strong as we are told. The effects of loosing this edge are uncertain, but it surely cannot be good.
(Source: China Daily)
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