Mapping technological innovation

The global distribution of technological innovations is changing, however past investments and innovations influence the ongoing trends in R & D and patents. The attention devoted to patents and setting international standards seems to increase, as countries are increasingly securitizing intellectual property – as shown by the case of China whose patent applications skyrocketed since 2000, overtaking the US in 2011. Regarding patents effectively granted by WIPO offices, Asia is far above other continents and Africa and Latin America are at the lower margins. North America has grown irregularly, but doubled the number of granted patents since 1990, while the number for Europe has decreased considerably, notwithstanding the vitality of some European firms. High tech export in mature economies do not show significant differences among regions. On the contrary, looking at R & D, remarkable differences among countries and regions exist. Japan and the US have maintained their leading positions, with China quickly closing the gap, and the EU countries following. Moving from these preliminary observations, this chapter aims to provide a map of technological innovation, drawing a clear representation of regional trends and their peculiarities by sectors.