TECHNOLOGY AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF PATENTS AND FIRM LOCATION IN THE SPANISH MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS INDUSTRY.



time lag of some years between a patent or an utility model is applicated and when is
later granted, and we wanted to make sure that at least all patents granted in 1995 were
included in the study.

Table 4 shows that 38.8% of patents and utility models of medical equipment
inventions have been granted to residents from Catalonia, a 24.3% to residents from
Madrid and a 11.5% to residents from the Community of Valencia. These three regions
concentrated 75% of the protected innovations developed during the 1979□1995 period,
a higher degree of concentration than all the industrial patents in Spain (Coronado and
Acosta 1997). But if we take into account only the patents granted to firms Dand we
exclude patents granted to individuals or institutions D the degree of spatial
concentration is even higher because Madrid, Catalonia and the Community of Valencia
account for 84.3% of patents and 86.6% of utility models granted to firms in the 1979∏
1995 period.

Table 4. Regional distribution of patents and utility models granted to Spanish residents in the 1979□
1995 period for medical equipment inventions

Spanish region

No. Patents

%

No. Utility
_____
models_____

%

Firm
patents

Firm utility
models

Andalucia______________

36

5.0

________68

3.7

__________6_

__________12

Aragon_______________

24

3.3

________67

3.7

_______10

___________17

Asturias_________________

________7

1.0

________38

2.1

________0

______________9_

Baleares_________________

________8

1.1

_________17

0.9

________2

___________4

Canarias________________

14

1.9

________23

1.3

____________1_

___________0

Cantabria________________

____________1

0.1

__________6

0.3

________0

___________0

CastillaDLa Mancha_____

________7

1.0

__________5

0.3

________0

_______________1_

CastillaDLeon___________

_______2

0.3

________37

2.0

____________1_

______________3_

Catalonia________________

280

40.0

_______697

38.7

107

________267

Extremadura___________

________5

0.7

________14

0.8

________0

___________2

Galicia___________________

17

2.3

________25

1.4

____________1_

_______________1_

Madrid_______________

152

21.1

_______461

25.6

_______35

_________168

Murcia________________

________9

1.2

________25

1.4

________0

___________4

Navarra________________

24

3.3

_________16

0.9

__________6_

______________6_

Basque Country_________

25

3.4

_______109

6.1

_________5

___________17

La Rioja________________

________3

0.4

__________5

0.3

________0

___________0

Community of Valencia

104

14.4

_______185

10.2

_______30

__________57

Total____________________

718

100.0

1,798

100.0

204

________568

Notes: The codes of the International Classification of Patents included in the study are: A61B, A61C,
A61D, A61F, A61G, A61H, A61J, A61K, A61L, A61M, A61N, H04R25∕00, H01J35∕00, H05G2∕00,
and G02C.

Source: Own production

This high degree of spatial concentration in the number of patents and utility models is
similar to the concentration of the R&D expenditures in medical and health related
activities in Spain. Table 5 shows that these three regions DCatalonia (basically the



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