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

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

<<   <   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   >   >>