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Patents per capita and Idaho

By nipper

One statistic I get tired of hearing is how data shows (showed?) that Idaho is (was) #1 per capita for patents and Boise is (was) #2 per capita for patents. The reality is those numbers are (were) greatly skewed by Micron Technology and Hewlett-Packard both having facilities in town. Those two entities account for 75%+ of the Idaho patents since 1984. Don’t get me wrong, I am not bad mouthing Idaho inventors. Instead, I’m criticizing those (typically in government) that pound on their chests like Tarzan, bragging about this statistic, trying to make it mean something it doesn’t. A local friend of mine, Chris Blanchard, recently wrote a post on this exact topic: Blanchard v. Florida: Why Patents per Capita is a Poor Economic Indicator...continue to full post

Full post as published by Invent Blog on August 04, 2009 (boomark / email).