During 2017 we saw the 5 year anniversary of the America Invents Act and 7 years of post-Bilski jurisprudence (including Mayo, Myriad, and Alice). And there are also reports that innovation in the U.S. is falling. That makes it a good time to look at the real world impacts of these changes on innovation. The evidence is in, and the evidence shows that the state of U.S. innovation is strong.
Over the next couple weeks, I’ll take a look at the details of that evidence, ranging from startup activity to research and development to patent activity. I’ll show that startup activity remains consistently strong in the U.S., particularly in high tech industries. I’ll show that research and development spending in innovation-centric industries like technology and pharmaceuticals continues to increase. And I’ll show that (while it isn’t really a good measure of innovation) U.S. patenting activity continues to be strong.
In other words, U.S. industries continue to be leaders in a wide range of technologies. Changes in patent law have not hurt their ability to compete or to innovate.
