A nice hypothesis, do you have any examples that show this to be true?
The realist in me bets that innovation has only a weak relationship to IP laws, and rather a strong relationship to a certain world-view that fosters innovation since childhood (go USA!)
How does the US foster innovation? It certainly puts the rich (Some of which who were innovators) on pedestals, but the education system certainly does not preach innovation for the first 18 years of a child's life. You could argue that it actually penalizes innovation.
I only have two personal anecdotes: My own childhood growing up in Washington State, and my experience in Thailand for the last 7 years.
In the USA, we often hear about how our (USA) school systems are too easy/relaxed compared to foreign countries.
In Thailand, it's the opposite, in the most terrible way possible. Everything is about test scores, and thus "thinking outside the box" is severely penalized.
People in the USA might not have the raw-academics, but the applied problem solving and team collaboration skills absolutely crushes the competition (Though of course that doesn't help manual labor jobs much)
The realist in me bets that innovation has only a weak relationship to IP laws, and rather a strong relationship to a certain world-view that fosters innovation since childhood (go USA!)