Fighting Innovation Mercantilism: A Growing Number of Countries Have Adopted Beggar-Thy-Neighbor Innovation Policies in an Effort to Attract Or Grow High-Wage Industries and Jobs, Making the Global Economy Less Prosperous in the Process (Innovation Mercantilism) (Company Overview‪)‬

Despite the global economic downturn, indicators of global innovative activity have remained strong during the past two years. The total global output of scientific journal papers in all research fields for the United States, the European Union (EU), and Asia-Pacific nations reached historic highs in 2009. The World Intellectual Property Organizations 2010 World Intellectual Property Indicators index found that in 2008, the most recent year for which information is available, both the total number of global patent applications received and patent awards granted topped any previous year. And global trading volume in 2010 is on pace to rebound 9.5% over 2009 levels. Yet notwithstanding these indicators of strength, all is far from well with innovation and trade in the global economy. To be sure, during the past decade, countries worldwide have increasingly come to the realization that innovation drives long-term economic growth and quality of life improvement and have therefore made innovation a central component of their economic development strategies. In fact, no fewer than three dozen countries have now created national innovation agencies and strategies designed specifically to link science, technology, and innovation with economic growth. These nations' innovation strategies comprehensively address a wide range of individual policy areas, including education, immigration, trade, intellectual property (IP), government procurement, standards, taxes, and investments in R&D and information and communications technology (ICT). Consequently, competition for innovation leadership among nations has become fiercely intense, as they seek to compete and win in the highest-value-added sectors of economic activity, to attract R&D and capital expenditure investment from multinational corporations, to field their own globally competitive and innovative firms and industries, and to generate the greatest number of high-value-added, high-paying employment opportunities possible for their citizens.