Cnn.com has a lengthy story on the preliminary estimate by the Patent Office of a the first year-over-year decline in filings since 1996, warning of the recession’s effect on innovation. But as the blog patentlyo points out, although there is no doubt some connection between innovation and patent filings, it’s far from straightforward.
Writes law professor and blogger Dennis Crouch: “I tend to attribute huge rise in patenting activity over the past two decades more to a perceived strengthening of the patent right and less to an actual increase in innovations. In recent years, court decisions and threatened action from congress may have reduced the perceived potential value of the patent right — thus lowering demand. Perhaps now, applicants are filing fewer ‘junk’ patents.”
