Knowledge Spillovers in Europe: A Patent Citations Analysis

This paper addresses the pattern of knowledge flows as indicated by patent citations between European regions. Our findings support the hypothesis that there are important barriers to knowledge flows in Europe. Patent citations occur more often between regions which belong to the same country and which are in geographical proximity. Furthermore, patent citations are industry specific and occur most often between regions that are specialised in industrial sectors with specific technological linkages between them. Patent citations are also more frequent when the citing region belongs to the same linguistic group as the cited region.
JEL classification : O 30; O 33; R 19     

Exploring the effect of structural patent indicators in forward patent citation networks on patent price from firm market value

This paper introduces structural patent indicators in the forward patent citation networks (FPCNs). Using the estimates of their relationship with firm market value, it explores the effect of the structural patent indicators on patent price. When applied to US smartphone industry and US drug and biotechnology industry, the common finding is that a firm's registered patent gets higher price if influenced faster by the previously registered patents of the same firm through self-citations. The empirical results imply that merely counting forward citations, shown related to patent price by the previous works, is insufficient; the structural properties in FPCNs are essential for the more accurate estimation of patent price. They also show that the relationships between structural patent indicators in the FPCNs and patent price are different between industries. It urges the necessity of selecting structural patent indicators, well fitted to each industry, for the better patent valuation using forward citations.     

Lovely but dangerous: The impact of patent citations on patent renewal

What is the impact of patent citations on patent renewal behaviour? Patent citations are commonly used as an indicator of technology spillovers. For cited patents, therefore, patent citations have a potentially ambiguous impact. On the one hand, patent citations may indicate a scientific breakthrough, a high value of the cited patent and therefore a long survival period. On the other hand, patent citations may indicate competing innovations that render the cited patent obsolete. By discriminating patents by technology field, it is demonstrated that patents that receive citations across technology fields survive longer than other patents. Patents that receive citations within the same technology field lapse earlier.     

Enhanced co-citation analysis using frameworks

The valuation of intangible assets, such as patents, has recently been considered an important technique for R&D strategies. This paper proposes a citation analysis as a method of valuation on patent clusters having patent networks. A citation analysis is a method that examines the value of a patent on the basis of the number of citations of references. In particular, a co-citation analysis is used for coupling patents as the patent cluster and valuating the patent cluster. While the co-citation analysis is of great interest as a method of valuation, this analysis has not been fully examined and does not define any framework for a technology transition and patent strategy. Therefore, in this paper, the conventional co-citation analysis for evaluating the patent clusters is enhanced and frameworks for the technology transition and patent strategy are proposed by analysing citation routes in a co-citation analysis.     

Can patent family size and composition signal patent value?

Recent research has proposed a method of patent valuation based on weighting patent family size by the market size of the countries in the family. The premise is that inventors tend to seek greater international coverage for their more valuable patents. The paper presents a novel way to test the ability of market size-weighted patent families to predict patent value and compares the method against extant measures of patent valuation based on patent citations and renewal behaviour. We use forecasting techniques to show that the weighted patent family size measure outperforms other methods in terms of predicting patent life and the number of citations. An advantage of the weighted patent family size measure is that it is based on ex-ante information and is easy to construct for purposes of evaluating patent value. We demonstrate this advantage using a large, comprehensive database of international patent families.     

International Knowledge Diffusion and Home‐bias Effect: Do USPTO and EPO Patent Citations Tell the Same Story?*

This paper estimates the international diffusion of technical knowledge using patent citations. We control for self‐citations and for procedural differences between patent offices using equivalent patents. We find that (1) there are clear biases in patent examination processes that generate citations in the two offices; (2) at the EPO there is a strong localization effect at the country level, and the size is comparable to that found at the USPTO; (3) technological fields have different properties of diffusion in the two patent offices that do not depend on a patent office bias; (4) using EPO data, the US is not the leading country in terms of citations made and received, as occurs at the USPTO.     

More is better: evidence that joint patenting leads to quality innovation

Joint ownership of a patent is most often viewed by firms as a second-best option compared to single, monopoly ownership. However, the results of this article suggest that there may be reason for businesses and policymakers to incentivize joint patenting behaviour. This is because, joint patent ownership is found to positively impact the quality of an innovation (as measured by forward patent citations). In addition, the degree of quality increases with the number of patent owners. Since past research confirms the important links between patent quality and ongoing innovation, and between innovation and growth, those factors that impact patent quality are deserving of attention. Economic research on joint patenting is currently limited, but we hope to shed light on the importance of expanding dialogue on this topic.     

我国专利制度改革的技术创新效应分析:基于专利权人行为的观点

研究了专利制度的变动对专利权人行为的影响。通过考察专利授权率、条件寿命期这两个反映专利权人对专利制度信任程度的指标,分析中国专利制度变动前后专利权人专利行为的差异。研究发现,我国1993年和2001年的两次专利制度变动增强了专利权人获取正式专利权的意愿;1993年的专利制度变动还有效延长了专利申请到实质审查的时间跨度。因此,我国两次专利制度变动皆提升了专利权人对我国专利制度的信任程度。     

Exploring technology diffusion and classification of business methods: Using the patent citation network

Among the many technology forecasting indicators, patents and patent citations are useful and important indicators. The more frequently a certain patent is cited by subsequent patents, the more the related technology can be said to be diffused, implying that the technology is more widely applied and thus more valuable. This paper analyzes the business methods technology which retrieves patents from the USPTO database. There are two purposes of this paper: 1. establish the indicators for finding basic patents and measure the relationship of these basic patents; 2. classify the basic patents and explain the groups of technology diffusion. Finally, this study identifies the two mainstreams in business method technology: one is focused on marketing technology, and the other one stresses on data security. Both are important for Internet data processes or e-commerce activities.     

How well do patent citations measure flows of technology? Evidence from French innovation surveys

Patent citation data are used in a growing body of economics and business research on technological diffusion. Until now, there exists little evidence on whether patent citations are a good measure of knowledge flows. Our paper assesses the legitimacy of using European patent citations as a measure of technology flows. It uses information from the Community Innovation Survey collected by the French Service des Statistiques Industrielles (SESSI), which contain firms’ responses to questions about their innovative activity. We show that patent citations are indeed related to firms’ statements about their acquisition and dispersion of new technology, but that the strength and statistical significance of this relationship varies across geographical regions and across channels of knowledge diffusion.     

Patterns of technology life cycles: stochastic analysis based on patent citations

Patent analysis has been considered as an effective means of estimating phases of a technology life cycle. However, previous studies have not considered the dynamic and idiosyncratic aspects of a technology’s progression since they were based on deterministic methods, mainly fitting s- or double s-shaped curves to patent application counts. Moreover, previous methods cannot be executed at the individual patent level. We propose a stochastic technology life cycle analysis to trace the phases of a technology’s progression based on patent citations and identify the patterns of technology life cycles at the individual patent level. At the heart of the proposed approach are a hidden Markov model to estimate the probability of a system being at a certain hidden state from observation and cluster analysis to group a set of objects according to their similarities. A case study of patents about laser technology in lithography is presented.     

Investigating the determinants of patent acquisition in biotechnology: an empirical analysis

Acquiring patents is an increasingly relevant opportunity for innovating companies, especially after the rise and development of the so-called markets for technologies (MFTs). However, only scant attention has been devoted to investigate patents' characteristics influencing their acquisition by organisations. Accordingly, this paper aims at filling this gap by analysing how four main characteristics – as patent scope, scientific knowledge cited by the patent, forward patent citations, and number of patent claims – impact the likelihood of patent acquisition. We based our statistical analysis on a sample of 9716 US Patent and Trademark Office patents assigned to 165 biotechnological firms. Results support our conjectures and offer interesting managerial implications for organisations operating within MFTs indicating which characteristics make patented technological solutions more likely to be acquired by other firms, as a narrow scope, inclusion of scientific knowledge, and a number of forward citations able to increase patent's impact and exclusion rights.     

Patent portfolios and knowledge flow(s) of photovoltaic companies

The current trend towards green energy is encouraging manufacturers to invest in photovoltaic technologies. In order to guarantee R&D and optimal operational performance, operators should be able to identify the technological advantages of their competitors for the conduct R&D and to ensure adequate technological knowledge intake. Therefore, from the perspective of patent portfolios and knowledge flow(s) of photovoltaic companies, this study adopted two approaches namely, patent counts and patent citations, to discuss the technical capability of R&D portfolios and the technological knowledge flow. Three patent indices were utilised for the integration of R&D portfolios which include: technology attractiveness, relative patent position, and revealed patent advantage. Technological knowledge flow allows construction of a patent citation network through backward citation of patents. Sources and movement directions of technological knowledge are measured by calculating the relative citation propensity. R&D portfolios and knowledge flow are complementary perspectives of each photovoltaic company.     

Random walk to innovation: Why productivity follows a power law

This paper examines a search model in which knowledge is created as rational, but poorly informed, innovators obtain new ideas from combinations of existing ideas. We assume that the productivity of an idea is stochastic and depends on the productivity of the parental ideas. Importantly, we assume that the contribution of these parents to the productivity of the final idea is enhanced by prior use of these in knowledge creation. We identify conditions on the search costs leading to two properties: 1) the tail of the distribution of the productivity of innovations is a power law, and 2) the number of citations, i.e., times an idea is used in the process of innovation, follows a displaced power law. Both these properties are consistent with the available empirical evidence on the productivity of innovations and on patent citations.     

Patent life cycle: New evidence

Patents and their renewals are critical because they protect inventions and reinforce information reported to investors about the utility and the quality of inventions. Thus, they signal the appropriate use of financial resources being invested, notably in research and development departments, and future revenues for their owner. Based on a sample of about 22,700 European patents, our research contributes to existing literature on patent renewal by two relevant outcomes. The first contribution proposes a possible definition of a European patent life cycle: abandonment of procedure, natural abandonment, and late withdrawal. The second contribution shows two main factors that influence the renewal of a European patent by examining delivery time and the cumulative number of citations.Our results show that the procedure is the key issue of structuring the patent's life. In addition, patents' viability is likely to happen given that a part in a series of patents is increasing, which means that valuable patents are often cited by later ones. The relationship stems from the rational behavior of market operators who will try to minimize essential ownership.     

我国知识产权试点示范工作对专利申请活动的影响简

在系统梳理国家级知识产权试点示范工作的基本情况和政策法规的基础上,以第一批全国60家企事业专利试点单位为研究对象,利用国家知识产权局专利检索数据库公布的数据,对其在1985—2011年的发明专利、实用新型专利和外观设计专利的申请量进行检索和统计,分3个阶段（试点单位认定前、试点工作开展期间、试点工作结束后）对其专利申请情况进行定量分析,探讨知识产权试点示范工作对专利申请活动的影响。结果显示：在试点单位认定前,试点单位的专利申请量增长明显;在试点示范工作执行期内,其专利申请量没有发生显著变化;在试点工作结束后,企事业单位的专利申请量和申请专利的企事业单位数量都有所增加。这表明,知识产权试点示范工作的开展在一定程度上促进了专利申请量的增长,但是存在部分企业为获得认定而申请专利的现象。     

International Knowledge Flows and Productivity: Intra- vs. Inter-Industry Spillovers

The effects of international knowledge spillovers on total factor productivity (TFP) at the industry level are examined by using a panel of 13 manufacturing industries across 15 OECD countries over 23 years. We distinguish between intra- and inter-industry spillovers from the information on patent applications and citations. Patent data are taken from the Japan Patent Office and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Using four alternative spatial panel estimation techniques, we find that international knowledge spillovers within the same industry significantly contribute to sectoral TFP. In contrast, there is little evidence of a positive effect of international knowledge spillovers on TFP across industries.     

Venture capital start-up co-evolution and the emergence & development of Israel's new high tech cluster

Given the growing size of patent databases and portfolios, scholars and practitioners alike need metrics to help them in weighting patent counts or in ranking patents to focus on the most important ones. The main objective of this paper is to help them in this task with a practical and replicable approach. The discriminating criterion chosen is the potential market for the patented invention and the approach uses five different patent features (forward citations, grant decisions, families, renewals, and oppositions) that (1) have been found positively correlated with the value of patents in the literature, (2) can be extracted from patent databases, and (3) could inform on the existence of a potential market for the invention. The paper therefore discusses the main methodological issues in measuring and interpreting these metrics over a large international dataset and proposes one approach to extract from the different measures a consistent score that can be used to weight or rank patents.     

Political incentives and state subsidy allocation: Evidence from Hungarian municipalities

Using a comprehensive database on successful and rejected applications for the European Union's Structural and Cohesion Funds between 2004 and 2012 in Hungary, we study which grant types are susceptible to political favoritism and how this is achieved. With fixed-effects and matching estimators we study whether applicants from municipalities with a mayor endorsed by the governing coalition won a higher grant value than applicants where the mayor was affiliated with the opposition. We find limited evidence for such a difference for total grant value, but in cases when the applicant is a public entity or the purpose of the project is construction and, therefore, visible to voters and thus may bring about electoral benefits, we do find effects of 16–21%. The decomposition of the effect suggests that favoritism plays a role both in the application and the decision making process as applicants from aligned townships apply in larger numbers and have higher acceptance rates. When analyzing the effect of grants on votes, we show that voters indeed reward construction and public projects but not the other grant types.     

Inventing together: exploring the nature of international knowledge spillovers in Latin America

This paper studies the nature, sources and determinants of international patenting activity in Latin American countries (LACs) and examines the extent to which LACs benefit from R&D that is performed in the G-5 countries (France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States). By using patents and patent citations from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, we trace sectoral knowledge flows from G-5 countries to LACs. We study the impact of three channels of knowledge flows: foreign R&D, patent citation-related spillovers, and face-to-face contact spillovers. Our results, based on data for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, suggest that international knowledge spillovers from the G-5 countries were a significant determinant of inventive activity during the period 1988–2003. We find that the stock of ideas produced in the USA has a strong impact on the international patenting activity of these countries. Moreover, controlling for US-driven R&D effects, bilateral patent citations and face-to-face relationships between inventors are both important additional mechanisms of knowledge transmission. Some of our results suggest that the latter mechanism is more important than the former.