U.S. patent surge: 1994-2014

Dustin Walsh - Innovation is key to U.S. economic growth, and that's never been more evident than in the past couple of decades. Between 1994 and 2014, patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have nearly tripled. That spike, in both patents granted and patent applications filed, is largely due to the boom in mobile technologies, like smartphones and software from Apple Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and others, said Phil Rettig, partner and head of the