Innovation maps, US MSAs, 2010-2015

In the visualizations below you can choose to display different innovation metrics by MSA, with circle sizes proportional to the metrics:

1. Patents by assignee location or inventor location, absolute counts or intensity by populations, with or without limits (at least 100 patents per MSA)
2. Design patents by assignee location or inventor location, absolute counts or intensities by populations, with or without limits (at least 20 design patents per MSA)
3. Trademarks by owner location, absolute counts or intensity by populations, with or without limits (at least 200 trademarks per MSA)

Choose the relevant metric in the pull down menu, with limits or not and click on “Show me” to visualize. By picking different metrics in the two visualizations, you can compare results.

Notes on the data

The two main sources of data for this study are the two public databases made available by the USPTO. Patentsview covers patents, both utility and design patents, while the Trademark Case Files dataset includes all information on trademark filings. Both datasets were accessed in July 2020.

Patents can be counted by assignee or by inventor, while trademarks can only be counted by owners. Counting patents by inventor location is most logical from the point of view of identifying the actual loci of invention, yet counting them by assignee location allows a more meaningful comparison with trademarks and provides information on where the direct economic returns might concentrate.

Patents and trademarks were assigned to 365 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), with a fractional counting approach in case of multiple inventors/owners. The reference year is the year of filing, yet I only included filings that made it to registration, as a quality check. All counts are averages for the period 2010-2015.

IPR intensity indicators were calculated using population estimates by MSA from the U.S. Census. .