Ever since modern man’s ancestors discovered fire, humankind has continued to discover and invent. As man continued to use his creativity to develop new and better things, the society in which he lived changed.
As culture and society changes, so do its creativity and its innovation. The onset of the Industrial Revolution in Europe led to the invention of many products and processes that reflected the cultural shift from cottage industry to factory-based work practices. The invention of the internal combustion engine, the semiconductor chip and the Internet have all had significant impact on the way in which we live, but innovation and cultural change are a bit like the proverbial chicken and egg: does innovation lead to cultural change, or cultural change drive innovation. I suspect it is a bit of both.
Patents as a means of protecting innovation have been around for many centuries. The Greeks are thought to have had some formal system to protect inventions and patents were issued by the Italians in the 15th century. Around the same time, the English issued their first Letters Patent for monopolies for inventions. The rationale behind the patent system is that in return for a full public disclosure of the invention – the terms ‘Letters Patent’ means ‘open letter’ – a monopoly is granted to the owner for limited period of time, after which the invention is open to all, the idea being that this full disclosure will add to the knowledge of society and provide impetus to its advancement.
Patents are more popular than ever and patent statistics can provide some measure of the creativity of society. Current statistics from the World Intellectual Property Organisation show an increase in International Patent Application filings of nearly 5% a year, indicating a robust level of innovation worldwide.
A close look at the available statistics paints an interesting picture. If we consider the most recent cultural shift in the way in which we communicate and interact, we see that the number of International Patent Applications published in the field of information technology rose 22% between 2005 and 2006: reflecting this cultural climate. Meanwhile, the number of published applications relating to Environmental Technologies is also rising – but only at half the rate. However, there were still nearly nine times more published International Patent Applications in the IT field than in Environmental Technologies, and only nuclear technology, agriculture, space technology and weapons fields showing fewer patent applications than the environmental technologies field. Using published patent applications as a measure innovation, there is an argument that environmental issues are not yet driving innovation – that accolade would appear to be held by IT, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and medical technologies.
Nevertheless, this is perhaps too simplistic a picture. It may be that the environmental technology arena may not be using the patent system in the same way as other technologies. Innovations may be out there, but are not being translated into commercial ventures, or we may be simply at the beginning of a cultural shift which has not yet found itself reflected in the statistics.
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