4 Decades Of Innovative States: Where Washington Ranks

Lucas Combos
·2 min read

WASHINGTON — There are many lessons Washington residents can take away from the coronavirus — among them, the importance of invention and adaptability when we encounter pandemic-sized hurdles in life.

With this lesson in mind, real estate blog Commercial Cafe looked back at four decades worth of patent information in our state and others to see how often we brought invention and innovation to the table.

Commercial Cafe based its research on data available from the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office. The publication looked at patent applications submitted from 1975 to 2019 from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. It also noted the most and least innovative sections — or industries — in every state, as well as the most and least innovative classes within those sections.

In Washington, 97,391 were filed between 1975 and 2019. Of those, 279 patents were filed in 2019.

Here’s a look at where our state is most and least innovative:

  • Most innovative section: Physics (52,957 patents)

  • Most innovative class: Computing/Calculating/Counting (41,659 patents)

  • Least innovative section: Textiles/Paper (441 patents)

  • Least innovative class: Skins/Hides/Pelts/Leather (1 patent)

  • Most prolific inventor: Lowell L. Wood, Jr. (1,923 patents)

After physics, our state has submitted the most patents in electricity, "emerging cross-sectional technologies," human necessities, and "performing operations & transporting," respectively.

Nationally, the United States can claim more than 3.3 million inventions submitted for patent between 1975 and 2019. Patent activity peaked most recently in 2013, when 144,072 patents were granted — the most in a single year.

The five most innovative states to date are California, New York, Texas, Illinois and New Jersey. More than 731,700 U.S.-based patents were filed and granted in California between 1975 and 2019.

California is also home to two of the nation’s five most innovative companies — Intel and Hewlett Packard. Others on the top list include New York-based IBM, Massachusetts-based General Electric, and Washington-based Microsoft.

In analyzing the number of patents submitted in each state, Commercial Cafe found that innovation also had a positive influence on economic growth.

“In any case, securing economic growth depends on investing in dreams of progress. As such, it’s reasonable to assume that the best way to invest in the dream is to support the dreamers,” the study says. “But, because humanity has yet to invent a way to predict ideas and inventors, the safest bet on securing long-term growth is to invest in education and innovation across the board.

This article originally appeared on the Seattle Patch