But as the potential of these countries to produce machinery is quite small, the figure may still serve as a good proxy. About three quarters of total mechanical engineering output is produced by the Triad, that is by the countries of the EU (234 billion ECU), by the US (213 billion ECU), and by Japan (185 billion ECU).
The level of invention differs among patents and the companies’ behaviour to apply inventions for a patent varies from country to country (e.g. patent applications to hinder competitors to circumvent an invention).