Patents c2003According to a 2003 MIT study of the number of U.S. patents
awarded per 1 million people for countries of the world, the U.S.A. comes in at first place. Nearly
half of patents are awarded to foreign companies. Finland, home of Nokia, Flextronics and ABB, takes
second place. Number 3 is the U.K., 4th is Japan, then Germany, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark and then
Switzerland. France comes in at #10. Canada rates 12th, Israel is 14th, and S. Korea is 20th. China
currently sits at #40, but is moving up quickly. Russia rates #43, and Mexico sits at #51. The
study also indicates country
status in terms of population proportion of engineers & scientists, innovation policy, number and
size of technology hotspots, GDP per capita, business competitiveness, etc. North Korea, Iran
and Saudi Arabia, do not even rate - go figure.
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