[LINK] Australian Patents

[Kim Davies]

> On Dec 5, 2014, at 5:25 AM, Stephen Loosley <stephenloosley at zoho.com> wrote:
> 
> "Australians need to get patenting"
> Australia is finally seeing a wave of tech start-up activity, but so far this is not translating into patent applications.
> …
>   By comparison the 20 largest US listed companies hold many hundreds of thousands of patents
>    and they collectively file over 20,000 patents year. Google alone owns 51,000 patents and IBM
>    has a similar number.
> 
>    This discrepancy between Australian and US corporations is primarily due to the focus of large
>    Australian companies on exploiting their 'protected' share of the local market rather than exporting
>    technology solutions.

Or, perhaps because Australia doesn’t have the same legal climate as in the US where your IT company will get dragged into court in Marshall, Texas unless you file thousands of meaningless patents for defensive purposes.

It is an entirely an apples to oranges comparison, which the article acknowledges in passing that people don’t actually sue in Australia over IP rights like they do in the US. Why it then gives credence to the tenet that patent count is a good metric for innovation is beyond me.

kim