8. Patents
The U.S. Patent and Trademark office released a report in 2000 detailing the number of utility patents (patents for invention, as opposed to design) in each county in the United States from 1990 to 1999. Each patent was assigned the residing county of the first inventor listed. This may not always be the county in which the inventor worked. In nine of the ten years reported, Linn County had the most patents issued, followed by Johnson County. The exception was 1994, when Iowa County had 18 patents to Johnson County’s 16 (table 8.1).
Table 8.1. Utility Patents by Year.
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
Benton 1 1 0 Cedar 0 0 0 Iowa 2 5 2 Johnson 21 15 29 Jones 2 0 0 Linn 67 60 59 Washington 1 1 2 REGION 94 82 92 STATE 349 378 369 U.S. 47,497 51,308 52,376
0 2 0 25 0 72 1 100 371 53,340
1 1 18 16 2 74 0 112 395 56,160
1 0 5 33 2 56 0 97 425 55,836
1996
1997
1998
1999
3 0 2 1 5 4 28 24 1 1 73 70 0 1 112 101 435 401 61,200 61,813
2 2 8 47 2 92 2 155 653 80,417
0 3 8 51 5 141 9 217 752 84,029
Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, United States Patent Grants by State, County, and Metropolitan Area. 2000.
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