Despite a drop in the number of patents awarded nationwide in the past year, Massachusetts remains a haven for inventors, according to data from the US Patent and Trademark Office and the US Census Bureau.
The Bay State ranked fifth in patents per resident in fiscal 2007, which ended in September, trailing only Idaho, Vermont, Oregon, and California.
Put another way, Massachusetts claimed 4 percent of all patents awarded to US residents last year, a figure that has held relatively steady over the past few years, even though the Bay State has just 2 percent of the US population.
"We are, in effect, an innovation economy," said Paul Guzzi, chief executive of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, citing the area's wealth of elite colleges and medical research centers. "We have consistently been high in terms of patents. That is our comparative advantage."
Overall, Massachusetts residents received 3,876 patents for the most recent fiscal year, down 5 percent from 2006. Nationwide, the number of patents awarded to US residents slipped 2 percent, to 94,618.
But it is too soon to know if the numbers indicate a trend, since the figures tend to fluctuate from one year to the next. A Patent Office spokeswoman also pointed out that a glitch pushed some 2005 patent applications into the 2006 totals, which might help to explain the decline.
According to an analysis by Foley Hoag LLP, a Boston law firm with a busy intellectual property practice, many of the top recipients of Massachusetts patents were technology companies, such as Analog Devices Inc., Boston Scientific Corp., EMC Corp., IBM Corp., Intel Corp., and Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories Inc.
In addition, MIT and two consumer products companies, Acushnet Co. and Gillette Co. (now part of Procter & Gamble), also made the top 10.
Hopkinton-based EMC, which makes data storage products primarily for businesses, said it won 181 patents through Dec. 19, up from 165 in 2006, mostly from Massachusetts inventors.
"We have been issued more and more patents every year," said Krish Gupta, EMC's vice president and assistant general counsel. In Massachusetts, EMC leads in the number of patents.
Gupta said that the company has developed an increasingly diverse pool of technology as the company has grown and made acquisitions and that EMC has been committed to protecting that technology by filing patents. Still, Gupta said, the company has also tried to maintain the quality of its patents, rather than going to the expense of patenting every minor development.
Idaho, which ranked first in US patents per resident, has a relatively small population of 1.5 million, but several tech companies that file mountains of patent applications, including Boise-based Micron Technology Inc.
The Patent Office has not officially released data for the 2007 calendar year. But the agency's database indicates it awarded 5,092 patents in 2007 that included at least one Massachusetts inventor, down 10 percent from 2006. By comparison, the number of patents awarded to US inventors fell 8 percent over the period. A Patent Office spokeswoman, Brigid Quinn, said the agency has not studied the data.
However, the Patent Office has gradually become stingier about awarding patents. In fiscal 2007, the office approved 51 percent of applications, down from a record 72 percent in 2000.
Patents have been a hot topic lately in Massachusetts and in Washington, with some in the tech industry pushing for limits on patents, while biotech companies have tried to maintain broad protection for new inventions. The issue has been debated not only at the Patent Office, but in Congress and the courts, as well.
Last spring, the Supreme Court curtailed companies' abilities to sue over patent violations. In one case, the court made it easier to challenge existing patents. In another, the justices ruled against a company's effort to sue for alleged patent violations in products made overseas.
Meanwhile, a federal judge blocked the Patent Office from imposing new rules on Nov. 1 that could potentially make it harder for companies to broaden the scope of their patents. The ruling came after drug maker GlaxoSmithKline challenged the new regulations.
In addition, Congress has been weighing proposals to limit patent suits, after complaints by some technology companies that they have been forced to fend off legions of lawsuits alleging obscure violations. The House approved a bill in September that would limit damage awards, but a bill is stalled in the Senate.
Todd Wallack can be reached at twallack@globe.com.
