US tiddlers target more foreign patents

A press release from inovia LLC (one of numerous business around the world which rejoices in that name) reports some good news for patent attorneys -- non-US-based ones at any rate: "72% of Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises Plan to Maintain or Increase Foreign Patent Filings in 2010". Says the report:

"It looks like belts have been tightened as far as they will go with IP budgets now stabilizing for 2010. 72% of corporate patent professionals surveyed in a recent study of 150+ small to medium-sized US businesses expect to maintain or increase their foreign patent filings in 2010, as compared to 2009. According to the survey entitled “US IP Trends: Global Patent Protection in 2010”, conducted by inovia, the majority of companies surveyed had their IP budgets cut in the last 12-18 months. In fact, almost 40% experienced a cut of over 30% of their budget. ...

Additional Survey Findings
• 72% of respondents brought some patenting procedures in-house in the last 12-18 months. Approximately half of the companies surveyed have no further plans to bring any steps in-house in 2010.
• 78% of respondents have previously filed or plan to file in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and/or China) this year.
• The cost-saving measure most cited for 2009 was to reduce the number of foreign countries entered. Specifically, between 2008 and 2010 there was an overall decrease in the average number of countries entered - from 6.6 countries in 2008 to 6.3 countries planned for 2010.

Survey Methodology
The online survey ... entailed querying patent professionals at over 150 US companies, representing primarily small to medium-sized enterprises. The survey was conducted between January and February 2010".

The IPKat isn't surprised, since this news confirms his gut feeling that things have eased up a little (or at least that capital for foreign filing has become a little easier to obtain). Merpel says, it would would be good to know the differential between the rate of filings into the different BRIC markets. From the moon they probably seem quite similar, but from closer to home they are very different in terms of current economic opportunities, licensing and enforcement practices and ability to export or reinvest earnings.