A good approach to predict technology companies’ next move or the emergence of a new industries is to keep an eye on patent trends. Over the last 30 years, the number of patents filed has grown exponentially worldwide. According to IFI Patent Intelligence, in 2008, IBM set a new US record with over 4,000 patents registered in a single year. They were closely followed by Samsung, with about 3,500 patents, while Canon, Microsoft and Intel were distant followers.
In France, and the rest of Europe, once a patent has been filed, the submitted documents for the given patent are available for free and can show you what the most innovative companies are betting on. For instance, if you go to the Web sites of the INPI (Institut national de la propriété industrielle) or the EPO (European Patent Office), you can see that the following patent applications were recently published this January:
Original Article: Patent Filings Help Measure Innovation in France | France Strategy
