One of the common mantras is that patents are indispensable, particularly for smaller companies, in order to prevent inventions being appropriated. If that is true, then presumably innovative companies are patenting like mad in order to protect their inventions. But is that really the case? Since the necessity of patents is so „obviously“ true, like so many other dogmas in the area of intellectual monopolies, people rarely look at the data to see whether it is. However, there is some research in this area, such as this 2012 paper from the UK, which explored the extent of patenting by companies over the last decade or so (pdf). Here are the main results: