Patent Applications
2.87 Patent applications are an alternative indicator of innovation. Eurostat data is available at the UK, regional and NUTS 2 levels. In 2003, South West England produced approximately 75 patent applications per million labour forces; the UK national average was 121 although the figure is heavily biased upwards by results from the Greater South East. The South West recorded the lowest patent application rates of the nine English regions. Substantial changes have been made to the methodology underpinning these data in recent years, which have moved the South West from one of the best to one of the worst performing UK regions - it is unclear as yet how robust the latest figures are. Data from the UK Intellectual Property Office, which handles patent applications made in the United Kingdom, suggests a less bleak picture - the South West performs at or above average, with 8.6% and 10% of UK patent applications filed and granted, respectively, in 2004, better than the region’s share of GVA (8%).
2.88 High-Tech Patent Applications 10 - A further measure of innovation is the regional share of high-tech patent applications, again presented as per million people in the labour force. The South West does better when evaluated using this measure (20 per million labour force), ranking 5th of the nine English regions. The region still performs behind the UK average for all high-tech sectors (24 patents per million labour force) due to high application rates from the Greater South East. Of the six separate high tech groupings, the South West outperforms the UK high tech patent rate for ‘aviation’ in line with the region's comparative advantage within this sector.
2.89 The sub-regional pattern is similar to that seen for all patents – a concentration of activity in the north of the region. Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and North Somerset is the only sub-region to outperform the South West average. Dorset and Somerset, however, do have higher than average rates in ‘computer and automated business equipment’ and ‘aviation’. In part, this may be due to a small number of key companies operating in these sectors.