The Economist released a global innovation index sponsored by Cisco that ranks countries on the basis of the number of patents acquired by nationals of these countries at the US Patent and Trademark Office, European Patent Office, and the Japanese Patent Office.
All AGCC Countries, except Oman, made the list: Kuwait (Rank 37), UAE (Rank 40), Saudi (Rank 42), Qatar (Rank 51),and Bahrain (60).
The list includes 82 countries and Oman is not on it. This means that no Omani individuals or companies acquired any patents at all from the US, the EU or Japan in the last three years.
This could be attributed to the general lack of innovation in the country due to education, professional training, or maybe even the work environment, it could also be caused by the lack of awareness of the patent system and the benefits of patent registration.
While nobody expects Oman to lead the list, it really sucks not to even be on it.
You can download the report PDF from this link. More info at the Economist.
[via IPKat]