Uschi Erne

The process of innovation is dependent on inputs that range from geographic proximity, to corporate assistance, to socio-economic factors. Measuring a location‟s innovative potential, then, must take into account different aspects of these inputs. The number of inventions, as measured by patent data, provides a good and relatively accessible source of information that can identify change over a time period. With no international patenting agency, inventors are required to patent their new products and processes in the individual markets they desire to enter. The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the geography and socio-economic indicators of Canadian inventions by year (1991, 2001 and 2006) and patenting agency (American and Canadian) using mapping and regression analysis.
In exploring the rate of inventions over this fifteen year time period, it was determined that both similarities and differences exist where patents in Canada have been granted by the Canadian versus US patent offices both on a spatial and aspatial level. Quebec and the Prairie provinces consistently had a lower national share of patents granted by the US patent office, while British Columbia had a larger share. From as early as 1991, Canadians being granted patents by the US patent office appear to be relatively geographically dispersed, particularly across southern Ontario. These spatial patterns are analogous to spatial patterns found using Canadian patent office data. The regression analysis indicates that characteristics related to industry sector and occupation type are important in explaining patent rate.