What determines how long an innovative spell will last?

This paper is set out to examine the temporal pattern of innovative activities: what might have affected a firm??s patenting from one period to the next. Based upon data on ??information technology?? (IT) manufacturing firms in Taiwan covering the years 1990?C2001, we develop a survival model to analyze the underlying drivers of patenting duration. Our results indicate that the level of the patent stock at the onset of the patent spell, defined as the number of successive years during which a firm produced at least one patent per year, has a non-linear effect on spell duration. Other factors, such as industrial growth, firm size and firm profitability, have a positive effect on patenting duration, while firm age and spell sequence affect negatively to spell duration. We conclude that state dependence is demonstrated by innovative behavior, yet the advantages gained from such creative accumulation can easily be dissipated, thereby illustrating the transient nature of dynamic capabilities.     

Top management team’s innovation-related characteristics and the firm’s explorative R&D: an analysis based on patent data

This study investigates the relationship between characteristics of the firm’s top management team (TMT) and its research and development (R&D) activities. Specifically, this research analyzes how observable characteristics of the TMT, such as functional experiences or educational background, and average tenure affect the firm’s proportion of explorative R&D activities. From the perspective of the upper-echelon theory, we hypothesize that the TMT’s functional experiences with R&D or science or engineering educational backgrounds increase the firm’s tendency towards explorative R&D. Moreover, we propose that the average tenure of TMT members with innovation-related experiences would have a positive moderation effects on these relationships. The hypotheses are tested using a dataset containing biographical information of the TMT members, financial, and patent data of 89 firms in U.S. high-tech industries from 2006 to 2009. Firm’s explorative R&D activities are analyzed using data on patent citations, patent classes, and non-patent references. The empirical analysis shows that the top managers’ educational background in science or engineering as well as their previous functional experiences with R&D have a positive effect on the firm’s explorative innovation activities. We also find that the size of these effects increases with a longer tenure of these TMT members. Our findings provide implications related to the effects of organizational characteristics on the establishment of a R&D strategy and highlight the role of TMT members with innovative experiences in directing a firm’s R&D activities and outcomes.     

Patent-related activities in Serbia from 1921 to 1995

In 1883 the Kingdom of Serbia was a co-founder of the well-known Paris Convention dedicated to protection of industrial property. This paper presents the analysis of inventive activities in Serbia in the period from 1921 to 1995. The available patent statistics is analyzed from the aspects of: (a) patenting structure according to the International Patent Classification sections, and (b) patenting dynamics. The findings of analysis indicate: (1) the fields in which technology development potentials are created in Serbia, and (2) the variations in inventors' productivity as a direct consequence of the variation in the country's innovation policy.     

Patent information: a team work

Patent Information is a multi-faceted specialization, combining the several aspects of industrial property— technology, economics, law and others — with the field of information.An efficient patent information service requires education on the industrial property system and on information techniques of professionals in various fields of technology and social sciences. To take full advantage of the information provided by patent documents, the users likewise must be trained.In Brazil several tentative training and promotional activities for potential users are being conducted. But the main question of education on patent information is still quite superficial.     

Patents as technological information in Latin America

This study shows the importance of patents as a source of technological information in Latin America. We studied the industrial property offices’ websites and the kind of patent information available such as laws, gazette, statistics, cost, forms, and contacts. We found at the USPTO and PCT websites the quantity of patent applications from applicants in Latin American countries filed in these offices. Brazil and Mexico in particular provide information on their websites to anyone interested in filing patent applications, searching patents and using patents as a source of technological information. This work shows that the quantity of patent applications is only slowly increasing in Latin America. Thus, each one of the 21 countries of Latin America needs to have a policy of dissemination of the importance of the patent system as a source of technological information to increase research and innovation in their countries.     

A Systemic Approach to Exploring an Essential Patent Linking Standard and Patent Maps: Application of Generative Topographic Mapping (GTM)

Abstract:

As the intense competition for the international standardization of technology has increased, many companies are concentrating their capabilities on securing essential patents that claim one or more inventions required to practice a given industry standard; however, despite the importance of developing essential patents, the approaches to exploring promising essential patent: have some limitations in terms of methodology and data. As a remedy, this article proposes a method that derives an essential patent through Generative Topographic Mapping (GTM)-based standard and patent maps. The suggested approach involves a systematic process that identifies vacuums on a standard map in a specific technology field and enables analysts to find candidate for promising essential patents instead of relying on the experts. By applying the proposed methodology, this research discovered the vacuums in an industrial standard document about fuel cell technology as well as the candidates of essential patents in this technology field.     

The state-of-the-art on Intellectual Property Analytics (IPA): A literature review on artificial intelligence,machine learning and deep learning methods for analysing intellectual property (IP) data

Big data is increasingly available in all areas of manufacturing and operations, which presents an opportunity for better decision making and discovery of the next generation of innovative technologies. Recently, there have been substantial developments in the field of patent analytics, which describes the science of analysing large amounts of patent information to discover trends. We define Intellectual Property Analytics (IPA) as the data science of analysing large amount of IP information, to discover relationships, trends and patterns for decision making. In this paper, we contribute to the ongoing discussion on the use of intellectual property analytics methods, i.e artificial intelligence methods, machine learning and deep learning approaches, to analyse intellectual property data. This literature review follows a narrative approach with search strategy, where we present the state-of-the-art in intellectual property analytics by reviewing 57 recent articles. The bibliographic information of the articles are analysed, followed by a discussion of the articles divided in four main categories: knowledge management, technology management, economic value, and extraction and effective management of information. We hope research scholars and industrial users, may find this review helpful when searching for the latest research efforts pertaining to intellectual property analytics.     

Patent data analytics for technology benchmarking: R-based implementation

We have utilized data analytics techniques to produce highly detailed, accurate, and actionable insights on patent data to enable the decision makers to take informed decisions. We have developed a unique method to help business professionals easily understand the patent landscape around a particular technology domain. The data inputs for the analyses are the patent statistics and the organization's technology priorities. We have used and implemented clustering algorithms on the patent data while considering the organization's technology priorities to identify solutions that can help organizations gain a competitive advantage, identify potential collaboration targets, technology-product alignment, business decision making, strategy planning and other strategic decisions.     

Patent data mining in fisheries sector: An analysis using Questel-Orbit and Espacenet

The advent of an enormous amount of patent data in various patent databases and patinformatics tools to analyze this data have led to an easy access to information for studying the technological trends and R&D activities in a sector. The fisheries sector is driven by the demand and profit generated and there are some unforeseen trends exhibited at different phases of development in specialized areas related to fisheries. In this study we have retrieved patent data of seven technology domains in fisheries, such as Fish, Fish Culture (FC), Fishing Technology (FT), Fish Processing and Products (FPP), Fish Health and Nutrition (FHN), Fish Genetics (FG) and Fish Rearing (FR) during 2000–2015. The legal status of patents, top priority countries and top assignees in different fields of the fisheries sector were analyzed. The results were compared with various developmental trends, indicating a clear relation to industrial ups and downs, the emergence of more patent portfolios in countries coping with latest technology trends and the improper litigation of legal status of the patents filed in the fisheries sector. Patent analysis in a specialized sector could be used as a potential tool in global policy debates, where fish as a natural resource is over-exploited without realizing its real potential.     

Survey of the annual technical reports on the industrial property information activities of IP offices in the year 2001

The activities in the year 2001 of some 46 intellectual property offices and organizations worldwide in the field of patent, trademark and industrial design information are summarized, based on the Annual Technical Reports (ATRs) provided by those offices and organizations. The summary for each country commences with filing statistics, followed by the most relevant, new features of their information activities. Both the filing and information activities vary enormously.The author concludes, inter alia, that

1. In most industrialised countries as well as some of the emerging countries, the number of IP rights applications continued to increase.

2. The granting/registration procedures have not kept up in many IP Offices with this increased number of applications.

3. Work on systems permitting electronic filing of applications, correspondence and fee payment is continuing at a great pace.

4. CD-ROM, DVD and the Internet are now the major vectors for disseminating IP information.

5. The value of the ATRs, and their chronological and geographical comparisons, is increasingly limited by the absence of many ATRs each year and the repetition of information already provided in previous ATRs.

     

Benchmarking R&D and companies through patent analysis using free databases and special software: a tool to improve innovative thinking

The availability of free patent databases on the Internet, offers the opportunity of opening the door of patent information not only to patent specialists, but also to many other groups, such as researchers, decision makers, potential inventors and students. The goal of this paper is to show how the combination of free patent databases (in this paper esp@cenet^®) and dedicated software makes it possible to perform easily and rapidly tests on new ideas, the automatic benchmarking of an enterprise's activity and the stimulation of innovative thinking. The benchmarking of companies alone, or of clusters of enterprises is exemplified with reference to the concept of high temperature lubricating oil technology. How to improve innovative thinking is shown within the context of an analysis of coconut technology in postgraduate courses of competitive intelligence provided in Indonesia. Both applications emphasize that the role of patent information is expanding as a unique source of technical information because free availability combined with easy patent mapping and analysis allow non-specialists to use this information source in all technical aspects of innovation, research and development, and strategic planning.     

Patents as sources of technology

The paper emphasises the importance of technical information as a factor in economic development and points out the advantages of patent documents as sources of technological information. It describes the possible uses of information in patent documents and discusses the extent to which patent literature is used in research and development in various countries.The importance of patent statistics for revealing trends in the technological activities of competitors is illustrated and the usefulness of patents in the transfer of technology to developing countries is emphasised. The paper ends with an examination of the criticisms of patent documents as a source of technical information.     

Exploring the validity of patent applications as an indicator of Chinese competitiveness and market structure

An increasing number of studies are using either worldwide Chinese patent applications as an indicator to assess the country’s international competitiveness or applications at the Chinese SIPO as an indicator of the internal structure of innovative activities on its domestic market. Whenever such macro level studies are presented, however, many practitioners tend to express disbelief regarding the validity of patent indicators in this emerging market, where IPR protection is perceived to play a role that differs strongly from that in other economies. This paper, therefore, compares the structure of both patent applications at the Chinese national office and global applications by Chinese inventors. Moreover, it contrasts Chinese application activities with those of other nations. On this basis, it analyses if there is evidence of different underlying motivations for and logics of application that would substantiate such doubts. It concludes that, following WTO accession, the Chinese technology market is finding its specific equilibrium but retains certain persistent particularities. Global filings of Chinese applicants, in contrast, remain biased towards the few major firms that can compete at the world markets for technology.     

Industry-Public Knowledge Infrastructure Interaction: Intra- and Inter-organizational Explanations of Interactive Learning

This paper pursues the development and empirical exploration of a theoretical framework that explains the probabilities of interactive learning of innovating firms and actors in the public knowledge infrastructure. Our research question reads as follows: To what extent does the strength of innovator firms' internal knowledge resources, the complexity of their innovative activities, and the structuring of their innovative activities influence the probabilities of interactive learning between innovating firms and actors in the knowledge infrastructure? We contend basically that more complex innovative activities increase the probability of internal resource deficits/shortages in innovating firms. The higher the resource deficits/shortages and the lower the alignment of innovative activities, the more likely the search for complementary resources externally, which induces higher probabilities of interactive learning with actors in the knowledge infrastructure. In order to test the generality of our theoretical claims six models were examined, predicting the probability of interactive learning of innovating firms with the knowledge infrastructure (universities and research centres) controlling for sectoral differences in technological dynamics and size effects. Both monotonic and non-monotonic effects were tested. Our findings show that antecedents of patterns of interactive learning differ widely and are contingent upon sectoral technological dynamics and firm size. Our findings enhance a substantial refinement of the main theoretical arguments explaining the level of interactive learning. The absorptive capacity effect turns out to have an inverted U-shape only for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The complexity effect is monotonic in some cases and non-monotonic in others. The interaction effect turned out to be U-shaped. The internal integration of innovative activities has no effect at all. Support by bridging institutions had a very strong influence on levels of interactive learning between innovating firms and knowledge infrastructure, but only for SMEs.     

A new measure of innovation: The patent success ratio

Summary Patents have become increasingly important, especially over the past two decades. As patent office procedures have adapted to remain abreast of changing economic and scientific circumstances, it has also become increasingly important to define and analyse innovation more precisely. This paper introduces a simple new measure of innovation, the patent success ratio (PSR), or the ratio of successful patent applications to total patent applications. It has been argued in the extensive literature on innovation and technology policy that patents can serve as an accurate proxy for innovative activity or innovation. This paper suggests that PSR is a more accurate measure of how innovative activity has changed over time. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to assess the usefulness of the new PSR measure of innovation using annual US data for the period 1915-2001.     

The use of patent information for the identification of development trends

The publications on a specific technical field issued by the patent officers within a certain period of time do not only reflect the inventive activities and the “production” of new technical knowledge in a country, but also signalize forthcoming industrial activities and therefore indicate new technological trends. The focal points of these inventive activities may e.g. be ascertained from the bibliographical data on published patent applications compiled according to the International Patent Classification. These data also provide information on the granting of existing and imminent patents in the different industrial countries.     

Using international patent data to identify and assess opportunities for technology acquisition from government research agencies

In today's environment of rapid technological change and global competition, it is becoming increasingly difficult for firms to keep up with the advances being made around the world in various high technology fields. This article illustrates how firms can make use of international patent data to identify and assess possible sources of new technology for acquisition, particularly government laboratories. The technological activities of eight French research agencies are assessed through quantitative analyses of the patent applications they filed during the 1980s. The aspects of their technological activities that are examined include: (1) the level and direction of technological activity, measured by counts of international patent families; (2) the technological significance of the work being performed, measured by the number of subsequent patent citations; and (3) the commercial potential of the work, measured by the number of foreign countries in which patent protection for the resulting inventions is sought. It is then shown how firms can interpret this data to identify the technological work of government laboratories that may be of interest for possible licensing or joint venture agreements.     

Patent market dynamics: In view of the business model of non-practicing entities

The emergence of Non-Practicing Entities (“NPEs”) influences patent market dynamics. Based on a database of NPE activities from 1996 to 2010, this paper attempts to investigate these influences in view of NPEs' heterogeneity. We found NPEs with prominent R&D involvements can integrate knowledge from the innovation and patent markets, and might therefore generate valuable patents and facilitate effective technology transfer. Hence, when compared with NPEs without any R&D involvement, R&D-performing NPEs appeared able to monetize their patents without resorting to excessive litigation. Thus, different NPEs could exert different influences and drive patent market dynamics in their own respective ways.     

包装创新设计中的智能技术专利数据可视化分析

目的根据专利数据图谱,探究包装创新设计中智能包装研究的演进路径及前沿热点可视化分析,旨在讨论智能技术与创新设计方法的关系,思考包装设计的创新因素,为拓展包装功能提供依据。方法基于包装中智能技术的普遍应用,以德温特专利数据库(DII)收录的智能包装相关专利为数据源,借助Citespace,利用定量分析和定性分析方法研究有关智能包装的重要专利与文献,分析多个阶段的热点课题与最新潮流,并通过突发词检测验证前沿热点分析结果的准确性。结论通过可视化的方法更加直观地分析包装创新设计中的智能包装技术,得出该领域分析的热点为RFID(射频识别技术)、智能媒体和转发器等领域,智能包装技术的广泛应用引导着未来包装行业发展的方向,势必催生包装的创新设计方法。     

基于DEA-SBM/Malmquist的广东省创新型产业集群的创新效率研究

分析了创新型产业集群的特征,指出创新型产业集群中丰富的协同创新活动是促进企业创新绩效的有效方法,并提出创新平台是协同创新的优良载体,建设创新平台能有效促进企业创新。在实证分析中利用DEA SBM超效率模型和Malmquist指数,将创新平台加入到创新效率测度的投入变量中,以专利申请数为产出变量,对广东省不同地区的创新型产业集群的创新效率进行了测度。研究结果表明：广东省不同地区创新型产业集群之间的创新效率整体较高但是存在一定差异;创新平台作为创新投入变量是一个能深刻影响测量结果的因素;集群之间的创新平台建设差异较大,一些地区创新平台建设滞后。基于此提出5点政策建议。