Leading international business school INSEAD has jointly released its 2012 Global Innovation Index with the World Intellectual Property Organization. The report ranked the innovation capabilities and performances of 141 countries, revealing lingering disparities in patenting resources but a growing awareness for their central role in economic and industrial progress.

In perhaps the most concrete sign of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's renewed commitment to efficiency, the agency's first four satellite office destinations have now been confirmed. The previously announced Detroit office will be joined by sites in Dallas, Denver and California's fabled Silicon Valley.

As students from around the world migrate to the United States to take advantage of superior post-secondary education opportunities, it appears as though American colleges and universities are getting as much as they give. According to the latest report released by the Partnership for a New American Economy, foreign-born students are behind 76 percent of the patents awarded to the nation's top 10 patent-generating schools.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has consistently embraced the role of facilitator in its dealings with the entrepreneurial community. But as dynamic technologies have posed new questions to the American intellectual property system, not all inventors have been pleased with the answers. To sort out fact from fiction in the complicated relationship between the two sides, attorney Leonid Kravets recently adopted a unique empirical approach.

The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology convened this week for an in-depth discussion on how universities can start turning federally funded research projects into private-sector innovation. Legislators were joined by delegates from the Association of University Technology Managers, several state colleges and the Maryland Technology Development Corporation.

As pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb prepares for the impending expiration of patent protection on its flagship heart attack and stroke medication, Plavix, the company has taken itself out of the running for producing a generic version of the drug and will instead focus on developing the industry's next innovation.

The technology sector has long been regarded as a crucial engine of American innovation, but many fear that recent intellectual property disputes could compromise industry progress. In an effort to bring sanity and civility to the patent litigation landscape, professors Jason Schulz and Jennifer Urban from the University of California - Berkeley recently outlined a new approach to addressing stakeholder concerns.

At the recent D10 conference hosted by All Things Digital, Apple CEO Tim Cook was the latest voice from the software development community suggesting that the current U.S. patent system is "broken" and could be standing in the way of innovation. But although most regulatory bodies will concede that there is room for improvement, the intellectual property management incentives embedded in the current system still have plenty to offer savvy software developers.

As prescription drugs from major manufacturers like Pfizer and Merck prepare to come off patent, stakeholders on all sides of the healthcare community are coming to understand the relationship between intellectual property and the economics of the industry. However, following the release of a new survey detailing a critical shortage of cancer drugs in American hospitals, a variety of misunderstandings have converged to make the patent system an undeserving scapegoat for the issues at hand.

The current class of U.S. legislators is keenly aware of the role intellectual property plays in supporting global competitiveness, as evidenced by the passage of the first large-scale patent system reforms in five decades with the America Invents Act. However, reports have emerged to suggest that Congressional leaders may be willing to limit the functionality of current intellectual property frameworks in the interest of economic security.