Patents and Expats

Here’s an interesting tidbit from The Economist: WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organisation) records not just the country where inventors of technical patents work, but their countries of birth. The Economist suggests this data can “measure expats’ brain power.”

Obviously, this statement has to be met with intense skepticism. After all, what do patent registrations really prove? Moreover, how large are the diasporas and home populations? Nevertheless, it’s your interesting chart of the day.

-KitJ