Global Innovation Policy Center

Orange County Register
So many reports beat up on California as a place to do business. But now the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has just issued a new report that comes to the state’s defense as a leader in innovation.

“Innovation and creativity are vital to California’s economy,” said Mark Esper, in charge of the U.S.  Chamber’s Global Intellectual Property Center, which issued the report.

The report notes:

• In 2007, Californians  received 22,595 patents, more than 24% of all domestic U.S. patents issued.
• Californians filed more than 68,000 trademarks, 22% of the application by U.S. residents in 2007.
• California is the largest employer of computer and video game personnel in the nation, accounting for 40% of the industry’s employment.

The report is part of the center’s series of State Fact Sheets as part  of the chamber’s ongoing push to protect American intellectual property and its patent and trademark systems.

“Intellectual Property, which refers to everything from inventions to the creative arts, drives innovation and improves our lives, generating life saving devices and medicines, discovering new energy and climate-saving technologies, finding novel ways to create and deliver information, and generating consumer goods of all types,” the Global IP Center website says.

Click here to access the interactive map to see reports for all the states.

Among California’s innovators, the report singles out:

• Philo Farnsworth who invented the electronic television system in 1930
• Charles Ginsburg, who invented the video tape recorder in 1951
• Frederico Faggin, Ted Hoff and Stan Mazor who invented the first single chip microprosessor.

The chamber says the center champions intellectual property worldwide as vital to creating jobs, saving lives and advancing global economic growth.