Life sciences advocates in Arizona are celebrating the passage of HB 2272, a measure to tighten open records laws that require details of intellectual property be disclosed. Passage of the legislation will protect against the loss of current research contracts or the possibility of missed opportunities due to concerns over the state's previous law, according to a statement by the Arizona Bioscience Industry Association (AZBio).

Intellectual property-intensive industries contribute approximately $5 Trillion to U.S. Economy and at least 40 million jobs, according to a new U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) report — Intellectual Property and the U.S. Economy: Industries in Focus. The report highlights 75 industries that use several forms of intellectual property (IP) protections (i.e., patents, copyrights and trademarks) most extensively. Using several economic impact indicators, the authors found that these industries were key drivers of the U.S. economy in 2010 including:

The Patent and Trademark Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce published final rules of practice for implementing the first-inventor-to-file provision of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) that will take effect on March 16. The AIA is a major step towards harmonizing the patent systems of the U.S. and its major trading partners. The legislation will aid the U.S.

In his first speech as secretary of State, John Kerry declared that U.S. economic competitiveness should be the centerpiece of American foreign policy. In the weeks following his appointment, the U.S. government has signaled a push to work with international partners to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and protect tech innovation at home. Two key elements of this strategy include continued harmonization of global antitrust laws and new efforts to protect American intellectual property from theft.

Invention is a driver of economic growth. That is the assertion of Brookings latest report on U.S. patenting and its effect on the country's economic prosperity entitled Patenting Prosperity: Invention and Economic Performance in the United States and its Metropolitan Areas. The U.S.'s innovative capacity and activity has increased steadily, but other nations are catching up and the U.S. must identify the implications of this fact to remain competitive.

As recently explored in an episode of This American Life, high-tech patent litigation has reached unprecedented proportions, with many research-oriented companies now joining the calls to restructure the patent system. This week, the White House released five executive orders and seven legislative recommendations to add transparency to the system and level the playing field for innovators.

A central tenet in the understanding of regional economic clusters is the idea that the closer two actors are to one another, the more likely they are to collaborate. This belief is based on decades of research done to examine knowledge spillovers and the effect of spatial proximity on tacit knowledge sharing. In a recent article, however, Jasjit Singh of INSEAD and Matt Marx of MIT differentiate the varying effects of crude distance on knowledge sharing compared to the effects of geopolitical borders.

Two recent academic research articles found that innovation at institutions of higher education and domestic firms are significantly impacted by an increase in the immigration of skilled and qualified immigrants. An article from Stuen et al. found the quality of immigrant students was the determining factor in their contribution to the production of knowledge at academic science and engineering laboratories. In an unpublished article from Kerr et al., the authors examined the impact of skilled immigrants on the employment structures and innovation rates of U.S. firms.

In the face of the spiraling unemployment in Greece and Spain, the European Union (EU) received encouraging news regarding the economic recovery of firms across its 27-member states.

In keeping with the commitment made in his State of the Union address to reform the American patent system, President Obama announced a series of executive actions to improve the quality and accessibility of the patenting process. White House officials also reiterated the call for more sweeping changes to the system from Congress and provided an update on the previous series of executive orders related to intellectual property issued in June of last year. At the same time, the U.S.

Growth in the number of patent assertions facing startup companies is hampering U.S. venture capital, according to a new survey of venture capitalists (VC) and venture-backed companies from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Robin Feldman, director of the Institute for Innovation Law at University of California Hastings. Eighty percent of VC respondents note that the number of patent assertions filed against portfolio companies have increased over the past five years, with half indicating these assertions were a major deterrent to investment.