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5. Connecticut
Connecticut
Patents per million people: 9.4

Connecticut's corporate and university heavyweights make it a champ at bringing in smart, educated workers. General Electric, Xerox, United Technologies and Pitney Bowes are just a few of the name-brand companies with offices in the state. And of course, Connecticut is also home to Yale, Connecticut College and Wesleyan.

Connecticut also gets a lot of "spillover" talent, because of its proximity to New York and Boston, said Charley Moret, managing director at Connecticut Innovation, which invests venture capital on the state's behalf. "You have a lot of smart people working in the state," said Moret, and many of them eventually decide they want to do their own thing.

Biotech and medical devices are key areas for innovation in the state, said Moret.



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Source: Kauffman Foundation based on U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 2008 and 2009 data
Kauffman looked at independent inventor patents per million people of workforce age, 18-64
LAST UPDATE: Dec 23 2010 | 10:29 AM ET
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