Figure 6a - Number of patents in "triadic"* patent families per inventor's country of residence0,010,020,030,040,050,060,01991 1995 1998 0,010,020,030,040,050,060,0EU 1 5 USANumber of patents per million population0,010,020,030,040,050,060,070,080,090,0100,0110,0PRT GRC ESP IRE ITA UK AUT FRA BEL DK LUX NLD USA DEU FIN SWE0,010,020,030,040,050,060,070,080,090,0100,0110,0Number of patents per million population, 1998Figure 6b - Scientific publications per million inhabitants250,0300,0350,0400,0450,0500,0550,0600,0650,0700,0750,01990 1992 1994 1996 1998250,0300,0350,0400,0450,0500,0550,0600,0650,0700,0750,0EU 1 5 JAP USAScientific publications per million inhabitants50,0150,0250,0350,0450,0550,0650,0750,0850,0950,0LUX PRT GRC ITA ESP IRE AUT DEU FRA BEL USA NLD UK DK FIN SWE50,0150,0250,0350,0450,0550,0650,0750,0850,0950,0Scientific publications per million inhabitants, 1999Note: *Patents filed all together to the EPO, the USPTO and the JPO to protect a single invention
Source: OECD STI Scoreboard 2003/ National Science Foundation, Science and Engineering Indicators 2002, http://www.nsf.gov and
Eurostat.
Patents are increasingly used as indicators of the output of invention activities. The number of
patents granted to a given firm or country may reflect its technological dynamism. The
drawbacks of patents as indicators, however, is that many innovations do not correspond to a
patented invention; many patents correspond to an invention with a near zero technological and
economic value, and many patents never lead to innovation. We do not have any statistics telling
us what the “success rate” is but with an assumption that all countries are experiencing the same
pattern the indicator still gives a good picture of where the countries relatively stand.
The US is again in front of the EU but three countries stand out among the rest; Germany,
Finland and Sweden. These countries all file more patents than the USA. The fact that
government non-defence R&D expenditures are higher in Europe, cf. figure 6a, while outcomes
in terms of publications, patents etc. are less impressive indicate that Europe has an institutional
governance problem rather than a government spending shortfall.
Another interesting output indicator is number of scientific publications. Again there is a huge
difference between the countries but for the EU as a whole there is progress, cf. figure 6b.