According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Switzerland is the European country that has filed the most patents in the three leading patent offices around the globe--the U.S., the European Union and Japan. Even better: Seven of the top 10 countries on the OECD's list are in Europe. Japan grabbed the No. 1 spot overall.

Even so, many pundits worry that Europe in general--and Switzerland in particular--needs to do more to foster smaller companies. The Swiss haven't devoted big resources to developing expertise in emerging areas of biotechnology and nanotechnology, especially compared with their U.S. and Japanese counterparts. According to data from 2003, published by the OECD, countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands easily outstripped Switzerland in filing biotechnology patents. France and Belgium held significantly more nanotechnology patents than Switzerland.

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