The licensing payoff from US R & D

The United States spent 2.5 percent ($171 billion) of its Grass National Pr oduct performing research and development in 1996. Industry spent the lion' s share of this amount to develop commercial products while the federal gov ernment and other non-profit organizations worked primarily in applied and basic research. For its efforts, U.S. industry: received $130 billion in ro yalty income in 1996. Approximately 50 percent of this came from licenses w ith affiliated entities, many of whom were based outside of the United Stat es. Government data show that the United Stares licenses-out to foreigners, particularly the European Union, four times more technology than it licens es-in. Statistics also show that there is a strong positive correlation bet ween research, innovation and U.S. economic prosperity.