Business Week Ranks Boston #3 Among World's Most Inventive Cities
Posted by Bob Sayre on Sun, May 10, 2009 @ 08:04 AM
Business Week, to my eye, is often misguided in its patent reporting; and there is plenty of reason to be suspicious of any ranking system suggesting any kind of precisions.Nevertheless, I believe the following characterization accurately pinned down Greater Boston:
"Boston's prowess in intellectual property stems from its world-renowned research centers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University."
The extent to which the local technology landscape is rooted in the work of our local universities, is truly impressive both in terms of the technology, itself, and in terms of the remarkably talented people they have attracted.
In Business Week's report on inventive cities, San Francisco / Silicon Valley topped the rankings and Tokyo was #2. Boston was the only city on the east coast to crack the top ten.And, of course, their references to "Boston" mean (or should mean) Cambridge at least as much as Boston.
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/04/0422_inventive_cities/4.htm
Also reported in this issue, for the first time, foreign applicants secured more US patents than did American applicants last year "due mostly to an upsurge in patents to inventors in Japan, South Korea, and China":
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/apr2009/id20090422_521441.htm
Hat tip to Patent Hawk for spotting these articles first (http://www.patenthawk.com/blog/2009/04/sagging.htm).