Patent Filings at Record High

The inventive spirit in the United States is alive and well, a new study finds.

Research from the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program shows the rate of patenting in the U.S.  has been increasing in recent decades and stands at historically high levels. The most recent data from 2011 marked a record for the number of patents — nearly 250,000 — granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for both foreign and domestic inventors.

Despite the increase in patents and patent applications overall, they are mostly coming from the same metropolitan areas of the U.S. The study found that 63% of U.S. patents are developed by people living in just 20 metr…
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