The number of patents is another way to quantify technological innovation, which is critical for remaining competitive. It is therefore wonderful news that last year, the number of patent applications submitted by Italian enterprises and researchers exceeded five thousand for the first time ever. This represents a huge increase from the prior year and about 40% from ten years ago. According to the European Patent Office, Italy ranks fifth among the Union's 27 countries, trailing only Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. Coesia, a Bologna-based packaging company, has applied for 157 patents on its own. Ferrari, Iveco, Pirelli, the pharmaceutical Chiesi, Leonardo, and the Politecnico di Milano are all listed top. Luca Rossettini is an example of an Italian inventor who invented a mechanism for securely removing outdated or broken satellites from Earth's orbit, known as "space junk". Similar to other rankings, Italy exhibits a notable underrepresentation of women inventors, comprising a mere 23% of the total. In contrast, Spain, for instance, nearly half of the inventors are female. The causes of this conspicuous imbalance, which reflects a gender disparity in the typical specializations of our industry, such as mechanical engineering, have been the subject of discussion for some time. Making better use of women's creative capacity should be the responsibility of both schools and families, where, as some economists suggested years ago, it would be appropriate to give girls Meccano as a Christmas gift.
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