The number of utility patent applications filed in the United States last year exceeded half a million.

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Having monitored the number of utility patents (an inexact but objective measure for innovation) granted by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office to countries during this period, it was fascinating to observe that the number of patents of foreign origin over taking those from the U.S. in 2007 for the first time in history.

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What Apple (and again Microsoft) does have is a number of design and utility patents.

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Challenge inspection is a tool of limited utility...for a number of reasons: First of all, if we cannot detect the violation in the first place, the challenge inspection provision is irrelevant.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

The rankings reflect the number of U.S. utility-patents, which are the most common type of patents awarded for protecting intellectual property and technological innovation, received by companies around the world in 2010 based on data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

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So the utility rations it by providing water for a limited number of hours a day and, in some places, by restricting the quantity.

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The number of people needing assistance is much higher, and will likely rise if utility power is not restored by Wednesday, when a northeaster is expected to dump more rain and tropical force winds over the area.

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"Our customers told us that it was difficult and expensive to transcode video due to the explosion in the number of devices they need to support, " said Charlie Bell, Vice President of Utility Computing Services.

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