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In WIPO’s Global Innovation Index 2020, Chapter 12 looks at “Israel’s Challenging Transformation from Start-up Nation to Scale-up Nation”. Israel often ranks at the top in international innovation and entrepreneurship reports, as it boasts more start-ups per capita than any other country. Israel also leads the world in the number of Engineers per capita and by Research and Development (R&D) expenditure by % of GDP and per capita.

“If you’re going to the Middle East to look for oil, you can skip Israel. If you’re looking for brains, look no further. Israel has shown that it has a disproportionate amount of brains and energy” – Warren Buffet

However, this chapter in the GII report emphasizes the unsustainability of Israel’s quick-exit innovation culture. The success of several start-ups from Israel selling their companies after just a few years to large Multinational Corporations (MNCs) has created an “exit culture” among local entrepreneurs. Pioneers of this movement include Waze -the social mapping location data start-up which sold to Google for $1.1 billion in 2013, and Mobileye -a leading computer vision start-up for self-driving vehicles, acquired by Intel for $15.3 billion in 2017.

To continue generating opportunity and wealth within Israel, there is an increasing need for start-ups to grow independently into scale-ups to retain the unique local know-how and re-invest in the country’s own economy. The current “exit culture” results in the export of intellectual property and causes brain drain as often qualified people and serial entrepreneurs seek opportunities elsewhere in the world after securing a large exit.

Patents indicate long-term investment

Patents and other forms for Intellectual Property protection are a good indication of where there is a strong long-term investment in technologies and studying trends in this can reveal who is investing in this technology and over what period.

In PatBase Analytics V3, Users can analyse an unlimited number of records from the connected searchable global patent database, PatBase. The graph below shows the trend data for all patent families with a patent application in Israel (IL) by priority year and country. It is showing that the largest investment in Intellectual property protection in Israel comes from the United States. This makes sense, as many large American MNCs have set up offices in Israel to benefit from the local talent and to be close to the thriving start-up ecosystem which offers attractive investment and acquisition opportunities.

Patent Priority Filing by Year in Israel

The light blue line in the chart, representing the number of priority applications coming from Israel to protect inventions, does appear to have increased in the last 7 years. This confirms that there is growing investment locally back into the country. This is a good indicator of intention for long-term sustainable investment in Israel as patents last for 20 years and an application typically signifies the intention to commercialise the invention in the jurisdiction.

The patenting landscape in Israel is expected to grow in coming years as more action is being taken to retain knowledge and grow local start-ups into larger competitive scale-ups.

With PatBase, you can track new patent publications updated daily across 106 jurisdictions. Set up alerts to monitor competitors, technologies and more to ensure you receive up-to-date information on what is happening around the world. PatBase simplifies searching, reviewing and sharing vital international patent data to support your strategic business discussions.

Contact Minesoft today for a commitment-free two-week trial of PatBase, including the new PatBase Analytics V3, by registering here: https://minesoft.com/patbase/

Read the full WIPO Global Innovation Index Chapter here: https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo_pub_gii_2020-chapter14.pdf