91% of the most innovative products in 1977-2004 were not patented

    It is well known that authors of new inventions do not always patent them. But the question remained: how many specifically new inventions are actually patented, and how many are not. A group of researchers from the School of Economics and Management at the Technical University of Lisbon published the first of its kind study on this topic.

    The main source of information for the study was the R&D 100 Awards lists, annually compiled by the scientific journal Research and Development. This is a list of the best new technical products that appeared on sale or became available for licensing in the previous year. The authors of the study did a great job of comparing each item on this list with the database of the US Patent Office.

    The study tested all products from the R&D 100 Awards lists for 1977-2004, a total of 2802 innovative products for 28 years. A jury of reputable experts selected products for inclusion in the list according to several criteria:

    1. technological significance, that is, can a product be considered a serious achievement from a technical point of view;
    2. competitiveness, that is, comparing the product with other products on the market.

    Both parameters are important and truly indicate product innovation. For example, in different years, the list of R&D 100 Awards was headed by Polacolor film (1963), cubic flash (1965), ATM (1973), halogen lamp (1974), fax machine (1975), LCD (1980), printer (1986) Nicoderm Anti-Nicotine Patch (1992), Lab-on-a-Chip (1996), HDTV (1998).

    The results of the study can be called stunning. It turned out that the vast majority of innovative products are not patented at all!



    By industry, the largest share of patents is in chemistry (14.2%), the smallest - in tools (6.8%). Among the products from different countries, inventions from Asia were most often patented (25.13% in total, 31.4% in the electrical industry), almost all of them came from Japan. In the United States and Europe, the share of patented developments is below average.

    This is not the first time that studies have shown the insignificance of the effect of patent law on the most important technical inventions. Previous research on products presented at Crystal Palace in 1851 and the Centennial in Philadelphia in 1876 showed that less than 20% of “economically significant” inventions were patented.

    It should be noted that in such studies it is often difficult to determine the cause and effect. Either the authors of the best inventions are so disinterested, or their inventions have become popular due to the lack of a patent. In any case, it can be concluded that many inventors do not see the need to file patents.

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