This document analyses the propensity of Colombian manufacturing companies to issue patents during the year 2016, and the derivated effect on their capacity to innovate. Reviewing the literature, we identify several strategic variables (factors) enhancing the likelihood of patenting like internal and external sources of ideas, cooperation, employees with specialisations, masters and Ph.D. degrees, exportations, regional and industry-specific factors, concluding with our results that, manufacturing companies developing those strategic factors, tend to have higher likelihoods to patent in comparison to other firms with less developed factors or other regions or industries. At the end of this analysis, some measures directed to the increasing of patenting behaviour in companies are proposed.