U.S. Statistics on International Technology Transfer: Need for Additional Measures

The United States measures technology transfers through annual statistics on payments and receipts from royalty and licensing fees. Because payments arising from a single licensing agreement typically continue for a number of years, the payments and receipts in any one year reflect not only agreements initiated in that year but compensation paid on technology transferred in earlier years. Payments currently received are based on early years in which the United States had a large technology lead, and their magnitude may obscure current trends.