ABC News – Money: As an accurate indicator of innovation and business health, patents are among the best, and a recent report confirms the recent economic downturn’s effect on intellectual property protections. UN Patent Filings Dropped for 1st Time Since 1978 via the Associated Press provides more clarity to this relationship:

The Wall Street Journal: The number of patents issued in China has exploded in the last year or so but a change in the laws governing patentability might slow down that trend. Loretta Chao reports on how protective measure are changing the shape of patents and how they “could crimp foreign companies’ willingness to invest in cutting-edge technology development in China” in her recent piece entitled China Issued Record Number of Patents in 2009.

Los Angeles Times: August Brown’s Who really benefits from intellectual property law? And who should?highlights the difference of why music copyrights are nothing like seemingly similar protections given to pharmaceuticals.

IT World: Now Google’s really got a reason to be pissed off at the Chinese for letting homegrown hackers attack the company’s Gmail service, among other intellectual properties: a fake Chinese Google search engine. Mike Igan reports: