Patent statistics: A good indicator for innovation in China? Patent subsidy program impacts on patent quality

Using a merged dataset of Chinese patent data and industrial survey data, we make a bibliometric analysis of patenting activities of Chinese large and medium-sized enterprises under local patent subsidy programs and test whether patent statistics are a good indicator of innovation in China. Our empirical results show that patent count is correlated with R&D input and financial output, which suggests that patent statistics are meaningful indicators. However, patent subsidy programs increase patent counts more than 30%. We emphasize the necessity of adjustments and provide a novel method of using the number of nouns in claims to quantify the claim scope, thereby overcoming the shortcomings of Chinese patent data that have no citations or lack well-documented patent claim information. We extend prior studies on patent subsidy programs by providing a detailed clarification of policy designs and their impacts and by evaluating policy impacts on both the quantity and quality of patent applications.     

Roads to innovation: Firm-level evidence from People's Republic of China (PRC)

Although infrastructure and innovation play important roles in fostering a country's economic growth, discussion in the literature about how the two are connected is limited. This paper examines the impact of road density on firm innovation in the People's Republic of China. The analysis uses a matched patent database at the firm level and road information at the city level. Regional variation in the difficulty of constructing roads is used as an instrumental variable to address the potential endogeneity problem of the road variable. The empirical results show that a 10% improvement in road density increases the average number of approved patents per firm by 0.71%. Road development spurs innovation by enlarging market size and facilitating knowledge spillover.     

中国企业创新为何重数量而轻质量——数量增长目标考核视角

数量增长目标考核是中国创新政策的重要特色。由于政策实施过程中普遍存在信息问题和机会主义，数量增长目标考核会引发微观创新主体的适用性策略行为。文章通过手工搜集和匹配上市公司专利数据，建立双重差分模型，尝试从专利数量增长目标考核视角，考察中国2010年实施的《全国专利事业发展战略（2011-2020年）》这一重大创新战略对企业创新行为的影响，发现该战略对企业专利数量增长具有显著的促进作用，而对专利质量提升具有抑制效应，表明专利数量增长的目标考核会导致企业"重数量、轻质量"的专利申请行为。异质性分析的结果表明，民营企业以及创新能力偏低的企业更倾向于采取"重数量、轻质量"的专利申请行为。进一步，该战略主要通过财政补贴、税收优惠和信贷扶持等政策措施引导企业专利申请行为。这些结论为引导中国企业高质量创新行为的政策目标设计、政策工具选择及分类精准施策提供了有益启发。     

专利视域下青岛市战略性新兴产业发展现状及对策

基于incoPat专利平台，对2011-2021年青岛市战略性新兴产业发明专利开展统计分析，从专利申请授权趋势和生命周期等揭示了青岛市战略性新兴产业发展现状，并对授权发明专利从公开趋势、有效性、申请人、技术领域、区市分布以及转让许可等多维度开展深入分析。结果表明，近10年来青岛市战略性新兴产业专利发展态势持续向好，但专利海外布局意识有待加强；生物、新材料和节能环保产业的专利申请量最多，但研发能力和创新质量有待提升；驻青高校及科研院所在青岛市战略性新兴产业创新发展及成果转化中发挥了重要作用；崂山、黄岛和市南三区的专利创新活动最为活跃，但产业侧重各有不同，而青岛市区市间、产业间专利创新活动仍存在发展不均衡现象。     

专利在高新技术企业中的运用

专利制度在高新技术企业中发挥重要作用,既有利于促进高新技术企业技术创新,又有利于高新技术的商品化和市场化。但目前我国的高新技术企业在专利制度的运用与保护方面存在观念落后、信息不通畅、缺乏有利保护手段许多问题。应加强专利法制建设,建立、健全行政执法和司法系统。同时,企业应自身建立专利检索体系,加强对专利的保护和利用,以有利于高新技术企业在激烈的市场竞争中求生存、求发展。     

基于专利转让数据分析的高校科技成果转化路径探索

高校是国家创新体系的重要组成部分,其专利转让与许可是建设创新型国家的重要环节。全国高校数量众多,专利授权数量和有效专利数丰富,但高校专利转让及许可实施效果欠佳。采用实证分析方法,对2013—2020年全国高校专利转化数据进行挖掘和分析,从有效发明专利数、专利转让率、专利所有权转让及许可数、专利所有权转让及许可收入等维度,深入研究全国高校专利转让与许可现状,分析制约高校专利转化的关键因素,并从完善高校科研评价体系、加大与企业和市场需求的对接、建立健全科技成果转化管理机构等方面提出对策和建议。     

Does participating in the standards-setting process promote innovation? Evidence from China

This paper provides novel empirical evidence on the positive effect of standards-setting involvements on corporate innovation in China, reflecting in improving the patent quantity and patent quality. This kind of positive effect increases as the firm's top management team quality increases. We also show that the positive effect of standards-setting involvements is more evident for state-owned enterprises than non-state-owned enterprises due to the unique features of state-owned enterprises. Our results are robust to a battery of tests, including the use of alternative model specifications, firm fixed effects, the instrumental variable approach, potential omitted variables, and propensity score matching procedure. Further analysis reveals that standards-setting involvements foster innovation mainly through improving firms' R&D efficiency, reducing financial constraints, and inducing collaborative innovation. Overall, our findings suggest that standards-setting involvements matter for corporate innovation in China.     

专利视域下全球人脸识别技术竞争和发展研究

以全球人脸识别专利为数据样本,综合运用专利价值度、有效量等指标,从全球专利现状、国家竞争力比较和风险识别方面展开分析,揭示我国人脸识别产业面临的风险,针对我国人脸识别产业在产业发展、专利布局、技术研究和风险预警等方面提出了具体建议。     

后补贴时代新能源汽车产业展望：政策梳理与技术分析

随着2023年补贴完全退出，中国新能源汽车应用推广政策从财政支持转向重点鼓励技术创新。在概述中国新能源汽车产业发展现状的基础上，梳理近年来新能源汽车相关的补贴和技术创新政策，然后使用incoPat专利数据库从多方面分析中国新能源汽车发明专利和技术创新情况。研究发现，中国新能源汽车保持迅猛发展，且在重点企业和发达地区呈现一定的产业集中度，产业政策中更为注重技术创新方面，专利申请数量稳步增长，技术创新对于市场发展有明显的促进作用。但新能源汽车技术创新也存在专利维持时间不长、市场价值不高、地区或申请人不能兼顾专利质量和数量等问题，就此提出国家细化技术创新奖励体系、各地因地制宜制定政策、领头企业示范引领等建议。     

The role of research and ownership collaboration in generating patent quality: China-U.S comparisons

This paper uses patent data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to investigate the association between inventor collaboration and joint assignee ownership, both domestic and international, and patent quality as measured by the number of claims and citations associated with a patent. Specifically, we compare the quality implications of research collaboration and joint patent ownership for the quality of U.S. and Chinese patents. Overall, we find that domestic inventor collaboration is associated with higher quality results for U.S. patents than Chinese patents. However, for China, international collaboration is associated with more positive quality outcomes; for U.S. patents, international collaboration implies lower quality than that associated with domestic U.S. collaboration. Part of this disparity is due to substantially different quality outcomes associated with joint U.S.-Chinese patents – quality gains for China and quality reductions for the U.S. We also investigate the quality implications of different organization-centered research, including dyadic and triadic collaborations, for patent quality as well as the quality implications of various assignee-inventor relationships, operating through incentive and scale effects. While most firms, particularly those in the U.S., appear to exploit advantages of fewer owner-assignees coordinating the scale benefits of more inventors, universities and research institutes in China appear to rely less on coordination-scale effects and more on the incentive effects associated with assigning patent ownership to inventors.     

Corporate innovation in China and its implications

China's current economic transition policies focus on shifting from export‐driven manufacturing towards high‐end, high‐tech research and development (R&D), and domestic consumption. Since the early 2000s the government has issued a series of policies and guidelines to encourage innovation. Both in‐house R&D investment and the number of patent grants/applications have seen considerable growth in recent years. More specifically, industry‐funded R&D was responsible for more than three quarters of total in‐house R&D investment. Despite the rapid growth in R&D expenditure and the number of patents, China's corporate innovation still faces many obstacles and challenges. To further stimulate corporate innovation, the government may need to create an environment of fair competition for domestic enterprises, encourage the growth of institutional investors and their active participation in corporate governance, and improve the efficiency of financial systems. The experience of China in promoting innovation provides policy approaches and implications from which other emerging economies can learn.     

数字经济与区域创新——基于融资和知识产权保护的角度

数字经济在中国经济中扮演着越来越重要的角色。文章构建了2011-2018年地级市数字经济发展的综合指标,以专利申请数量来量化区域创新产出,从融资和知识产权保护的角度,研究了数字经济对区域创新的影响。研究发现数字经济显著地促进了区域创新。在进行一系列稳健性检验及采用工具变量控制可能存在的内生性问题后,文章的研究结论依然成立。经济学意义上,数字经济发展水平提高1%,区域创新产出增加1.05%。机制检验发现,数字经济通过缓解创新面临的融资约束和提高知识产权保护水平来促进区域创新。进一步研究发现,数字经济对发明型创新、实用型创新和外观型创新都具有显著的促进作用;虽然数字经济的发展水平在东部和非东部地区存在较大的差异,但是数字经济与区域创新之间的关系在东部地区和非东部地区之间并不存在显著的差异。文章关于数字经济与区域创新之间的关系及其背后机制的研究对构建数字经济时代区域创新体系及实现国家创新驱动发展战略具有重要的理论和现实意义。     

The value of Chinese patents: An empirical investigation of citation lags

China has been experiencing a substantial growth in patent applications. But is this increase accompanied by a similar increase in patent value? To assess this question, we examine the citation lag of Chinese patents as a proxy of patent value in comparison with patents from the US, Europe, Japan, and Korea. Our empirical analysis comprises a unique data set of 60,000 patents with priority years between 2000 and 2010. Utilizing Cox regressions, our results show that Chinese patents suffer from a large citation lag in comparison to international patents, indicating a lower value. This is especially true for patents filed domestically. However, we find empirical support for an increasing patent value in more recent patents. China shows a strong dynamic in the field of patenting and our results suggest that the gap between Chinese patents and international patents might narrow down in the near future.     

Intellectual Property Rights and Patenting in China＇s High-technology Industries： Does Ownership Matter？.

This paper aims to systematically investigate the impacts of strengthening intellectual property rights on patenting in China's high‐technology industries and to explore the potential differences in response to patent reform by ownership. Empirical results show that the estimated patent elasticity of R&D is lower than that for OECD countries, indicating relatively low R&D productivity for China's high‐technology industries. The direct innovation effect of technology imports is negative, while the absorptive ability embodied in R&D helps in gaining external sources of knowledge, thus contributing to innovations. Specifically, strengthening intellectual property rights can induce more innovations in terms of patents in China's high‐technology industries and is particularly relevant to foreign‐owned high‐technology enterprises.     

社会资本能否抑制僵尸企业的创新挤出效应？——基于制造业上市公司的经验证据

以制造业上市公司为样本，探讨社会资本能否抑制僵尸企业对健康企业创新的挤出效应。结果显示：僵尸企业每增加1%，健康企业的发明专利数降低0.41%。僵尸企业的创新挤出效应大部分由非国有企业承担，国有企业的创新并未受到影响。健康企业通过积累不同类型的社会资本来抑制僵尸企业对其创新造成的挤出效应。非国有健康企业的连结型社会资本对创新挤出效应的抑制作用最强，结合型社会资本的作用次之，桥接型社会资本的作用最小。     

Measuring China's patent quality: Development and validation of ISR indices

Because China has become one of the largest applicants of PCT patents, it is of interest to compare the quality of Chinese and non-Chinese applications. We extend a quality index based on internationally comparable citation data from international search reports (ISR) to consider foreign, domestic, and self citations. Whereas foreign citations show that Chinese PCT patent applications reach only a third of the non-Chinese quality benchmark, the extension towards domestic and self citations suggests a higher quality level that converges to or even surpasses the benchmark. We investigate these differences based on firm-level regressions and find that in China, only foreign citations, but not domestic and self citations, have a significant and positive relation to R&D stocks. Using Germany as a representative country without policy support for patenting, we show that all three citation types may be used as economic indicators if policy distortion is not a concern. Our results show that domestic and self citations suffer from an upward bias in China and should be employed with caution if they are to be interpreted as a measure of patent quality.     

Going out to innovate more at home: Impacts of outward direct investments on Chinese firms' domestic innovation performance

This study explores the effects of cross-border mergers & acquisitions (CBMA) on domestic innovation of Chinese firms. We build a new panel dataset that matches information on CBMA and innovation activities for China's publicly listed firms. We rely on matching techniques combined with a difference-in-differences estimator to study the causal effects of CBMA respectively on firms' investments in innovation, innovation outputs, and financial performance. The main findings reveal that CBMA has both a positive impact on firms' R&D spending and number of patent applications, no statistically significant effect on the number of granted patents or on the quality of those patents, and a negative effect on firms' financial performance. These results depend, however, on the type of CBMA (horizontal or vertical), destination country (OECD or non-OECD), and the technological intensity (high-tech or not) of the acquirer and target firm. Overall, the findings bring into question whether CBMAs, and China's going-out strategy, will significantly boost its indigenous innovation capabilities.     

基于专利申请人视角的高价值专利情报分析——以中国专利金奖获奖专利为例

高价值专利培育工作当前已成为各级政府推动知识产权高质量发展、促进科技创新和经济社会发展的重要着力点。将由国家知识产权局评选的中国专利金奖获奖专利作为高价值专利，基于申请人视角选取指标并对这些专利进行分析，以期为创新主体提供借鉴与参考。研究表明，进行高价值专利培育时，各类创新主体需要关注多类型专利、以市场为导向加强产学研合作、强化与代理机构的合作、加强权利要求撰写的谋篇布局和专利转化运用的能力建设。     

Corporate key labs: Breakthrough or white elephant?

Based on manually collected data from Chinese listed firms' key laboratories at the state and provincial levels, this study shows that key laboratories improve firms' innovation output. Corporations with key laboratories at the state or provincial level produce more patents and citations than their counterparts. A series of endogenous treatment effects, including the Heckman two-step sample selection model, instrumental variable estimation, policy shock analysis, and propensity score matching, indicate that this study's main conclusion is robust and consistent. We also observe that key laboratories' beneficial impact on innovation output becomes more prominent for firms belonging to high-tech industries, those led by an inventor or scientist CEO, and those located in cities that enforce the protection of intellectual property. Further, key laboratories foster innovation mainly by developing scientific research capacity, increasing human capital, and improving R&D subsidies. Our findings demonstrate that key laboratories can benefit firms, their stakeholders, and the public in an emerging market such as China.     

税收负担会阻碍企业创新吗?——来自“金税工程三期”的证据

文章以税务稽查系统的改革-"金税工程三期"作为政策实验，利用上市公司2006-2016的年报数据，在双重差分模型下研究了"金税工程三期"对于企业创新的影响。研究发现，"金税工程三期"上线后，企业的研发投入和研发产出显著下降。进一步探讨内在机制，发现"金税三期"提高了企业的所得税费用负担率，增加了企业的税收负担。"金税三期"对企业创新的影响存在异质性，影响主要体现在民营企业、非创新型企业和现金流不充裕的企业中，并且与"金税工程三期"试点版相比，"金税工程三期"优化版对企业创新的负面影响更大。这表明，税收负担的加重会阻碍企业创新，政府应当适当减轻企业税负负担，促进企业转型升级。