Innovation explosion

There’s a terrific blog on US technology website Mashable at the moment, detailing 10 of the most interesting patents filed last year by tech giant Apple.

There are some great selections too, including a solar-powered iPhone, a touch-screen Mac and video game comic books.

How many of these ideas make it out of the patent office and onto the production line is of course unknown, but the fact that Apple lodged more than 580 patent applications during the calendar year 2010 is pretty impressive.

Except of course, when you compare this to IBM.

According to US research firm IFI CLAIMS, tech giant IBM became the first company to break the 5,000-patent mark, lodging a stunning 5,896 patents during 2010, up 20% from 2009. The company finished in front of Samsung (which filed 4,551 patent applications, up 26%) and Microsoft (3,094, up 6.5%).

In total, the number of patents granted in the US in 2010 surged 31% to 219,614 patents. And remember, this was during a year in which the US economy was still in the doldrums, suffering through a terrible GFC hangover.

So how is Australia tracking in this regard?

Late last year, IBM and Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne released its 2010 Innovation Index which showed the rate of innovation (measured by looking at the rate of patent filings and trademarks) increased 6.1% in 2008, the latest available figures.

That was far better than the flat rate of innovation recorded in 2005, 2006 and 2007, but it doesn’t really tell an up-to-date story.

Has Australian managed to keep pace with R&D during the downturn? The latest figures from IP Australia shows national patent applications in December 2010 increased by less than 1%, although applications across 2010 were ahead of IP Australia’s target of 5,500 for 2010.

Of course, getting a patent is one thing – turning it into a real business is another thing entirely. And as venture capital sector leader Katherine Woodthorpe argues today, we are not doing enough to encourage funds to pour into our venture capital sector.

We need to keep fighting to improve our innovation efforts in Australia to ensure we keep pace.