Innovation in Uruguay between 1970 and 2018: a patent data approach

Abstract

This paper systematizes and analyses patent data in Uruguay for the first time. For this purpose, it uses the official records of patents filed at the Uruguayan Patent Office. The paper explains the processing of the original records and a descriptive study of the data is carried out, analyzing the temporal evolution of patents between 1970 and 2018, the territorial distribution of invention activities, their technological specialization and the main agents involved. Subse-quently, the relationship between patent data and territorial development in Uruguay is studied. The results corroborate the prevalence of non-resident actors in the patent registers as well as the central role of the public research institutions within the resident actors. In addition, a consistent positive correlation between the level of regional development and the register of patents is observed.