Recession Holds Innovation Back

U.S innovation has become the latest victim of the recession as it slowed down for the first time in 13 years. The recession cut in to cost and budget, consequently halting the pace of U. S innovation.

The slow pace shows in the patent filings in the United States as it fell 2.3% in 2009, from 496,886 last year to 485,500 this year, which makes the year 2009 the first year since 1996 to witness fewer patents year over year by the businesses and inventors.

On the other hand, it was seen that the U.S. patents which had been issued to the inventors and the businesses in foreign countries had risen considerably by 6.3% for the year. The recession is the primary culprit behind the fall in U.S. filings. Many companies decided to hold off on launching new ideas to market unless the economy shows substantial growth.

It should be remembered that for big US companies like Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), their intellectual property is the key to their success.