Studies have shown that over 70 percent of companies admit to investing in research that led to (or was leading to) a previously patented solution. The estimated cost of this duplication of effort comes in at nearly 30 percent of total R&D spend.

The top three vertical market sectors - in terms of R&D spend - information technology, automotive, and pharmaceuticals waste a purported $15 billion, $9.7 billion and $9.2 billion, respectively, re-inventing the wheel.

That wasted spend could go a long way – check out the infographic below to see what, if applied elsewhere, the $9.7 billion the auto industry alone wastes could do:

For full version: http://inventionmachine.com/the-Invention-Machine-Blog/bid/86963/INFOGRAPHIC-The-High-Cost-of-Rework-Redundancy-in-Automotive-Innovation