A report published last month (October) showed that, for the second year running, UK firms failed to have even one entry on a list of the world’s top 100 global innovators, based on patent filings.
The list is based on the number of patents filed, the number granted, how far-reaching they are and how often they are cited by other companies in their inventions.
The report, published by Thomson Reuters, says that the UK’s poor record on R&D spending is a major part of the reason why it doesn’t feature on the list, but also cites the heavy reliance on financial services, which meant that the UK was hit by the financial crisis far worse than most of its global competitors.
It also says that the UK’s failure is underscored by the low R&D investment as a percentage of GDP and that, in that regard, the UK was the lowest of the US, Japan and France in R&D spend through 2010.
According to Reuters, the trend is also reflective of the evolution of the UK economy away from manufacturing and toward a more service-sector orientation, with a heavy reliance on financial businesses.
However, the Government is attempting to redress the situation through, for example, the Patent Box legislation earlier this year, which should slash the corporate tax rate on income derived from UK patented technologies, although this will not be fully phased in until 2017, and as the report says, it will take several years to find out whether or not the step will have a significant impact on the UK’s overall patent activity.
The UK’s performance, or lack of it, is thrown into stark relief by other European countries, particularly France, which contributed more names to the list than any other European state.