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 A gradual decline in producing patents
March 7, 1999 By Gary Rotstein, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
The former Westinghouse Electric Corp. once ranked near the top of the U.S. patents list, a reflection of its employees’ inventiveness and the technology-oriented company’s focus on developing ideas and products it could control for profit. Before Pittsburgh’s decline as a corporate center – with the demise of Westinghouse the most recent example — such manufacturing stalwarts as Gulf Oil, U.S. Steel and Rockwell generated hundreds of patent applications from innovative local work each year. Patent development in Western Pennsylvania has been eroding and shifting in recent years, due in large part to corporate downsizing and relocation. Westinghouse ranks 19th all time in the number of U.S. patents received by corporations, but its numbers declined every year from 1992 until it became CBS in 1997. In its last full year of operation, Westinghouse received only one-fifth the number of patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Organization as in its high-water mark year of 1987, when it received 654. Of the 15 PG Benchmarks regions, Pittsburgh ranked 11th in the number of patents per working age population granted in 1997 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Organization. The city ranked sixth as recently as 1994, but the Denver, Portland, Seattle, Phoenix and St. Louis metropolitan areas all moved ahead of it in the intervening years. Minneapolis, led by three technology-driven corporate entities — Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. (or 3M), Honeywell Inc. and Medtronic — is the patent leader among Benchmarks cities. The lowest is Kansas City, with an agricultural and service-related economy less likely to produce patent-related work. Local business development supporters and patent attorneys see no cause for pessimism in the Pittsburgh area’s corporate patent decline. They note that patent generation is but one measure among many that help assess the region’s economic climate. "It’s interesting, but it doesn’t tell the whole story," local patent attorney George Dickos said of the patent numbers. "It occurs to me that Pittsburgh does have a lot of inventive activity. I don’t think we can say that it’s in the highest tier of inventive activity … but there are a lot of efforts being undertaken to enhance that." A patent application is basically an attempt by a business or individual to control the use of an invention for 20 years. The government evaluates the merit and uniqueness of whatever discovery is being advanced before deciding whether to grant the patent. A record 124,147 were approved nationally in 1997. Corporations have traditionally generated the most patent activity, but the growth in the field in recent years has come from smaller high-tech firms and research-oriented universities, including Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. Whatever the source, not all patent applications are equal, noted Douglas Goodall, interim chief executive officer of Innovation Works Inc., the nonprofit business assistance organization supported by the universities. "Patents that turn into products that then create jobs definitely are a great barometric measure of the local economy," Goodall said. "Patents that are filed that never turn into a product or create anything economically don’t mean much in terms of economic growth." Herbert Wamsley, executive director of the Intellectual Property Owners Association, made up primarily of corporations engaged in patent activity, said patent filings have been increasing about 10 percent annually as U.S. industry has increasingly recognized the value of research and development since the 1980s. "In general, regions that have a lot of high-technology industries, such as computer software and biotechnology companies, are probably seeing a faster rate of increase than other areas," he said. "Areas that have manufacturing companies, and particularly those doing research and development in any industry, are going to be [increasing patents]." Goodall said some of Pittsburgh’s newer, smaller firms may be turned off to patent applications by the costs involved — $5,000 to $10,000 for various fees. But several patent attorneys said there’s enough work locally to keep several hundred lawyers busy, and that remaining corporations such as PPG Industries, Alcoa and Allegheny Teledyne continue to be aggressive in the field.
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