Stop Counting Olympic Medals, Start Counting Patents

Ever since the 2012 Olympics started I’ve been seeing and hearing “medal counts”.  People seem very concerned about whether the US will “win” the Olympics by having more medals than China.  While this is an interesting diversion, perhaps some people need to stop counting medals and start counting patents.  Here’s an EXTREMELY interesting piece of news that you may have missed last December, China filed more patents than the United States and China…  What does this mean to the U.S. economy?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/21/china-patents-idUSL3E7NL0B720111221