Thomson Reuters announced the world’s 100 most innovative organizations on Tuesday, 15 of which are chemical and/or pharmaceutical manufacturers (no surprise there), and 11 are ACC member companies.
But the most important takeaway from the report? The top 100 added more than 400,000 new jobs in 2010 over 2009 - a strong indication of the impact innovation can have on jobs and economic growth, noted the business intelligence group.
Thomson Reuters says the Top 100 Global Innovator program uses a proprietary methodology to identify the companies and institutions that lead the world in “innovation activity,” which it bases on four principle criteria: patent approval success rate, global reach of patent portfolio, patent influence in literature citations and overall patent volume.
That’s why the America Invents Act (HR 1249) - a bill President Obama signed last September in an effort to make a sizable dent in the U.S. Patent Office’s 700,000-application backlog - matters so much to America’s innovators, especially those employed by America’s chemistry industry.
In fact, part of the reason so many chemical manufacturers made the top 100 list is that 20 percent of all U.S. patents is a chemistry or chemistry-related innovation. DuPont alone (also among the top 100 innovators) owns over 21,000 patents and 15,000 patent applications worldwide. As a whole, the domestic chemistry industry spends approximately $50 billion every year to support new innovation.
Innovation is a means of growth and prosperity for companies and nations seeking to overcome sluggish economies and achieve competitive advantage. The Thomson Reuters 2011 Top 100 Global Innovator program recognizes those organizations that lead the world in innovation, the protection and commercialization of inventions, and influence on future technologies. We salute these companies and their leaders for the innovative spirit they foster and their commitment to protecting intellectual assets.
Just one day after the Thomson Reuters’ announcement, Popular Science magazine named 3M Kind Removal Silicone Tape and 3M Noise Indicator NI-100 among its top 100 “most innovative, high quality and revolutionary ideas” in the publication’s 24th annual “Best of What’s New Awards.”
Mark Jannot, editor-in-chief of Popular Science, said innovations like these, chosen from among thousands of entrants, “surprise and amaze us” and “represent the highest level of achievement in their fields.”
It’s no coincidence either, then, that Thomson Reuters also listed 3M among the world’s top innovators.
