Dissecting auto innovation

Innovation is reshaping the automotive industry, but in what form and at what rate? As Basil Moftah, President of Thomson Reuters IP & Science, commented: “By dissecting innovation to its core components – the scientific research that informs initial discovery and the patents that protect and commercialise new ideas – we can begin to identify important trends that influence the future of the global economy.”

Thomson Reuters’ “The Future is Open: 2015 State of Innovation” report finds that the industry’s growth in innovation rose a mere 1% this past year, as gauged by research and patent activity worldwide. This marks a dramatic slowdown from recent years, as evident in the chart below.