NEW JERSEY INVENTION INDEX – MARCH 2025

The Invention Index measures a country’s or state’s innovation output by comparing GDP growth with patent production growth. 

New Jersey Invention Index March 2025: 0.78% (D- grade)

New Jersey Invention Index over the last year:

Anything over C grade is positive sentiment; anything under C is negative outlook/sentiment. Using that sentiment, it is possible to observe trends over time, and also compare states/countries. In doing so we can predict which states have the best chance to recover economically from the pandemic (or any other economic incident that may occur).

Invention Index Scores for New Jersey

Analysis:

Comparison with Previous Months:
The March 2025 score of 0.78% marks a slight decrease from February’s 0.80%, continuing a downward trend from October 2024.

Long-Term Trends:
The score has generally declined from 0.82% in September 2024 to 0.78% in March 2025, with a brief increase in December 2024 (0.93%).

Significant Changes:
November 2024 saw a sharp drop to 0.68%, the lowest in the period. This is a notable decline, but no specific reason is identified.

Contextualizing the Data:
March 2025’s score suggests a continuation of the decline observed in previous months, indicating a sustained downward trend rather than a temporary fluctuation.

Discussion:

In March, the New Jersey Invention Index scored a negative sentiment which was lower than the previous year’s average and underperformed the downward trend for the year. This is in contrast to the prior 12 months, which experienced an upward trend. As the world continues to recover from the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is unclear if there is any backlog of applications awaiting approval or if the department has fully caught up. If approvals are not yet caught up, we may see a decrease in approvals – and a reduced Invention Index – in the coming months/years as the state feels the full economic impact of companies closing and/or being forced to minimize their staffing and therefore minimize their R&D work hours.

Learn more about the Invention Index here.

Are you thinking of patenting any of your bright ideas? Did you know your research work could be eligible for the R&D Tax Credit and you can receive up to 14% back on your expenses? To find out more, please contact a Swanson Reed R&D Specialist today or check out our free online eligibility test.

Who We Are:

Swanson Reed is one of the U.S.’ largest Specialist R&D tax advisory firms. We manage all facets of the R&D tax credit program, from claim preparation and audit compliance to claim disputes.

Swanson Reed regularly hosts free webinars and provides free IRS CE and CPE credits for CPAs.  For more information please visit us at www.swansonreed.com/webinars or contact your usual Swanson Reed representative.