We shouldn't be using "patents" to measure "innovation." That's what the dumb ass capitalist patent freaks do. "Oh you think intellectual property is BS, what about all the bajillion patents filed last year????? SEE ALL THAT INNOVATION!!!"
I mean if we lived in a post capitalist world, yeah I'd love to see the concept of patents abolished. But in the world as it is today, they are an indirect measure of technological development.