Utility patents are titles of ownership that give exclusive exploitation rights to an invention for a limited period of time. They are issued by official national agencies that examine patent applications and issue titles of ownership and are valid only in the territory of the office that granted the patent. The indicators presented in this section count the patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Patents filed at the USPTO are particularly interesting because of the importance of the US market and the business opportunities it offers.              
                       
A utility patent is first issued to an inventor who, if so required, turns it over to the organization for which he works. This transfer of rights is done even before the patent is granted. In other words, when an invention is patented, the official patent document lists the names and addresses of the inventor(s) and those of the assignee(s). This is why we present two types of patent indicators: by inventor's place of residence (number of inventions patented) and by assignee's place of residence (number of patents granted to assignees). The first gives an idea of the knowledge production resources available in a given geographic region. The second gives information on who has the capacity to market the inventions.