Even though California is home to the headquarters of Google, Facebook, Netflix and other technology companies, Bloomberg Businessweek says our state isn’t the most innovative one in the nation.

That honor goes to Washington, where home-field advantage belongs to Microsoft and Amazon, among other companies known for generating intellectual property, revenue and changes in American life over the years.

California is in second place in Bloomberg’s rankings, and Massachusetts is third. The company used several criteria in assessing making its determinations, including the percentages of people working in science, high-tech, mathematics and engineering, and the numbers of patents generated in the states.

They also looked at which companies call the various states home.

Some observers of the technology industry might well dispute whether or not Microsoft is still an innovation leader. Many would argue that the struggles of Windows 8 and relative lack of success of Windows smartphones indicates that the company that dominated the 1990s is unable to innovate and lead today.

It should be noted that more patents are generated in California than in any other state.

Bloomberg also determined that even though California has a higher percentage of technology enterprises (29 percent) than Washington (21 percent), Washington fares better in the rankings because of its consistently high scores across the spectrum of categories.

Another advantage Washington has over California, Bloomberg said, is that the state “arguably owns the cloud (web services).”

While people here might well dispute the rankings, it’s indisputable that people who generate intellectual property are wise to take steps to protect it. To find out which protection options are best, discuss intellectual property with an attorney experienced in this complex area of law.

Source: Businessweek, “AstraZeneca, Microsoft, Adidas, Cummins: Intellectual Property,” Dec. 20, 2013