Most innovated in the IT field typically was judged by the number of patent applications and export revenue from high technology. Has that changed?

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/01/06/73665_HNmostinnovative_3.html

Between 2000 and 2004, the number of European patents awarded in those fields by the European Patent Office (EPO) almost doubled, from 2,819 to 5,615. Of all the European countries, Germany won the most, with 741 IT patents. Second was France, with 466. Finland received 288, the U.K. 238 and Sweden 221.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/01/06/73665_HNmostinnovative_1.html

In Ireland, where the government has worked hard to attract pan-European manufacturing, distribution and service operations for IT manufacturers including Apple Computer (Profile, Products, Articles), Dell (Profile, Products, Articles), and Intel (Profile, Products, Articles), high technology only accounted for 29.1 percent of the country's exports. In comparison, the U.S. gained 27 percent of its export revenue from high technology and Japan 22.8 percent.

For the U.K. the figure is 22.7 percent, and for France 20 percent, with Germany trailing at 14.8 percent.





>>> The US is not particulary known as an innovative country you'd like to think of. A few examples:
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>>Honestly Walter - these examples are ridiculous.
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>Not more than the originating message saying that europe is not innovative. I'd like add one another example. Our national Philips holds an awfull lot of soft and hardware patents which were really innovative. Like for example the Audio tape, DCC, Compact disc.
>
>>Picking a few subjective examples to back up an already silly statement. The US is clearly a huge source of innovation in a large number of fields. It's not all research done by others with US funding. (But even if it were it shows that the US apparently know how to make the money :)
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>The US by its size probably has developped numerous innovative technologies. I have trouble to think of specific ones. My statement is however that innovation does not neccesarely happen in the US, and certainly not more than elsewhere. There certainly are areas where the US is NOT innovative.
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>- Environmental.
>- Alternativate sources of energy
>- Adapting world standards of measurements (Metric system)
>- Multimedia (not meaning graphical card in computers), Asia is better at it.
>- Infrastructure (E.g. Heavily outdated phone network, power network, trains, dikes (except planes))
>- Healthcare system. Though technically the most advanced in the world, also the most costly and a significant number of people excluded from healthcare.
>
>
>>The US has very, very much to admire, as does Europe. And both have enough problems that "throwing stones in glass houses" is a saying that comes to mind.
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>Sure. I totally agree. Europe has to build up its European union, that is for sure.
>
>Walter,