An interesting article from the AP (last week). According to the UN, the number of international patent filings dropped last year for the first time since 1978 as companies hit by the global economic downturn sought fewer new protections on their intellectual property.Not surprising, most of the filed in 2009 were for computer technology, followed by pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. Innovations in computer chip design and nanotechnology saw the greatest rise in patents.

“The World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, received about 155,900 international patent filings last year, a drop of 4.5 percent compared with the nearly 164,000 filings received a year earlier.”

“Inventors in the United States still registered the highest number of international patents - 45,790, or almost a third of the total. But U.S. filings were down 11 percent compared with 2008.”

The rest of the article is at http://news.findlaw.com.