Text matching to measure patent similarity

Research Summary : We propose using text matching to measure the technological similarity between patents. Technology experts from different fields validate the new similarity measure and its improvement on measures based on the United States Patent Classification System, and identify its limitations. As an application, we replicate prior findings on the localization of knowledge spillovers by constructing a case–control group of text‐matched patents. We also provide open access to the code and data to calculate the similarity between any two utility patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office between 1976 and 2013, or between any two patent portfolios. Managerial Summary : We propose using text matching to measure the technological similarity between patents. The method can be used by various practitioners such as inventors, attorneys, patent examiners, and managers to search for closely related prior art, to assess the novelty of a patent, to identify R&D opportunities in less crowded areas, to detect in‐ or out‐licensing opportunities, to map companies in technology space, and to find acquisition targets. We use an expert panel to validate the improvement of the new similarity measure on measures based on the United States Patent Classification System, and provide open access to the code and data to calculate the similarity between any two utility patents granted by the USPTO between 1976 and 2013, or between any two patent portfolios.     

Identifying technology trends for R&D planning using TRIZ and text mining

The current pace of technological development has forced many companies to invest significant capital and resources in research and development (R&D) activities. A systematic and efficient method of identifying technology trends and their evolutionary potentials can help companies guide their R&D planning and wisely allocate their R&D resources. This study proposes a framework combining the evolutionary trends developed by the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, or Teoriya Reshniya Izobretatelskikh Zadatch (TRIZ) in Russian, with the visualization technique of text mining to systematically identify technology trends from patent documents. As technological information in patent documents is stored almost entirely in text format, the text mining method allows R&D personnel to efficiently identify technology trends and effectively conduct R&D planning. Utilizing text mining method on patents of magnetic random access memory (MRAM) systems and the underlying principles of TRIZ evolutionary trends, this study shows that MRAM includes 10 important technology trends. These trends have almost reached the evolutionary limit phase defined by TRIZ, which means that MRAM is fast becoming a mature technology. Therefore, for businesses that intend to acquire MRAM technology they do not possess, a wise R&D plan may be licensing the technology, buying the technology from others, or participating in a joint venture rather than using in‐house R&D.     

Corporate technology portfolios and R&D performance measures: a study of technology intensive firms

This paper examines the relations between technology portfolio strategies and five commonly used research and development (R&D) performance measures. Patent and financial data of 78 US-based technology companies from 1976 to 1995 were gathered and analysed to investigate how a well-managed technology portfolio can create synergy and affect R&D performance. A technology portfolio can be characterized by its composition and technology concentration. A valuable technology portfolio that consists of patents with higher average citation made and self-citation ratio can have a positive effect on firm value. Our findings suggest that large firms may enjoy advantages for technological innovation because they can exploit synergy effects of their technology portfolios. Technology concentration strategy does not work well because firms focusing on few technology fields can experience diseconomy to patents received since high-quality patents are increasingly difficult to obtain. This paper lays the groundwork for future empirical research on technology portfolio and R&D performance.     

Technology analysis and R&D management

Technology analysis is a new field of knowledge aimed at creating a fuller understanding of the technological setting within which business operates. It provides a macro-discipline and is specifically aimed at improving the effectiveness of management of technology. As such it is of direct relevance to R&D management.
The essential tools of technology analysis constitute a set of analytical frameworks covering aspects such as: (i) a common approach to describing individual technological artefacts, (ii) a taxonomy of technologies, (iii) a classification of technological trends, (iv) a chart of technological limits, and (v) a socio-technical preference profile.
These frameworks help the R&D manager to dissect and debate typical R&D management problems such as: (i) selecting R&D projects, (ii) setting broad R&D objectives in the case of a given project and (iii) setting specific R&D goals to meet the said objectives. The frameworks also help the R&D manager to portray and present research achievements within a simple and intuitively appealing framework.     

Patent-based inventor profiles as a basis for human resource decisions in research and development

Profiles of inventors' technological competence are a valuable source of information for decision-making in research and development (R&D) management, e.g. concerning inventor assessment, human resource development and R&D team-building. In the following exposition, a new method of inventor profiling will be put forward, which is based in particular on semantic patent analysis and multidimensional scaling. First, in the course of semantic patent analysis, specialized software, equipped with a natural language processor, reads the patent text transferring the contents into a subject–action–object–format (SAO). The extracted SAO structures are then used to create similarity matrices for patents or patent sets, respectively, according to a specific similarity value. Subsequently, an inventor competence map can be produced by means of multidimensional scaling.
The benefits of this method for R&D-related issues in human resource management will be illustrated by the example of a German mechanical engineering company. Two distinct types of profiles were generated and tested: (i) the profile of a single key inventor and (ii) a profile of key inventor sets. The single key inventor profile gives information on the range of competence, i.e. the homogeneity or heterogeneity of a certain inventor's competences, providing far more detailed insights than resorting to bibliographic data like international patent classification (IPC) classes or citations, whereas the latter kind of profile establishes the position of a certain key inventor in relation to others, helping to highlight specific groups of inventors and their domains. These results are clearly apt to support human resource management.     

Evaluating the risk of patent infringement by means of semantic patent analysis: the case of DNA chips

In this paper, we are going to present a method for detecting the risks of patent infringement by evaluating similarities between patent documents on the basis of semantic patent analysis. This approach enables the user to visualize similarities in the contents on a semantic patent map by means of multi‐dimensional scaling. The effectiveness of the semantic patent map has already been demonstrated by Dressler (2006) with regard to patents of seal technology, in which documents are commonly kept short and the extracted contents are concise. This paper will open out to the field of biotechnology, where patents can easily comprise several hundreds of pages. The method presented here conveys an interdisciplinary approach and combines computer‐aided natural language processing with domain‐specific expertise of biochemical processes. This is illustrated by an authentic case of infringement involving two manufacturers of DNA chips. Our experiment will show how the infringement case is visualized on a patent map based on semantic patent analysis. This experiment can be compared with the search for a needle in a haystack, the two competitive patents representing significantly conflicting ‘needles.’ From an approximate number of 4,000 patents in the current US Class 435/6, a set of patents was selected that included the ‘needles’ mentioned. This paper will point out how such mutual interference can be detected by way of semantic patent analysis, and what advice may be given to R&D managers who are faced with the risk of patent infringement.     

Mapping the invisible colleges of R&D Management

R&D Management has consistently been considered one of the top technology and innovation management journals since its inaugural issue in 1970. The purpose of this paper is to use bibliometric techniques to examine R&D Management in four time periods, 1986–1990, 1991–1995, 1996–2000, and 2001–2005 in order to reveal changes in its intellectual base. Bibliometric research has illuminated the knowledge domains of several technology and innovation management journals including R&D Management Linton and Thongpapanl, but there has not previously been a comprehensive detailed analysis focused only on R&D Management . Using co-citation analysis, this paper identifies the invisible colleges (research networks) associated with publications in R&D Management . The results indicate that Cohen and Levinthal's absorptive capacity model dominates the final two periods. The conclusions suggest how the absorptive capacity model might be more effectively utilized in future R&D Management research.     

R&D management responses to the environment: current theory and implications to practice and research

The environmental problems faced by society are often regarded as global in importance. The global imperatives linked to environmental concerns pose critical questions about the international management of R&D. This theme is developed in this paper which was initially written as the basis for a workshop on R&D management responses to the environmental challenge held as part of the 1992 Conference on Managing R&D Internationally at Manchester Business School.
The paper considers recent literature on R&D management responses to the environmental challenge drawn primarily from English language sources out extending beyond traditional R&D management literature. The intention was to identify current theories about R&D management and the general business context for R&D and to consider the implications of environmental concerns for R&D management practice.
The paper suggests that R&D management and the environment is still at a relatively early stage of development. Nevertheless, there is a demonstrable gap between the approaches to environmental problems adopted by R&D practitioners and those chosen by R&D theoreticians. This mirrors a more general gap between theory and practice seen in the basic R&D management literature.
In general, R&D management and the environment has been constructed in the literature as a set of tools and techniques, rather than a strategic management issue. However, there is a developing body of literature which links R&D management and environmental management in a more strategic way and focuses on the need to consider organizational as well as technological change.
The paper concludes that an important way forward for research in this area is to establish an R&D Management and Environment Focus Group to bridge the gap between theory and practice and to explore the application of environmental concepts to R&D management.     

Measuring technological capability and performance

The relation between technological capability and firm performance is more complex than what is generally assumed. Researchers have not been able to consistently find empirical support for this apparently 'simple' relation. The objective of this study is to illustrate the theoretical and empirical complexity of this relation and explain why the use of different measures can lead to dramatically different results. In this study, we analyse the technological capability–performance relation in 201 large US public manufacturing companies. A variety of patent statistics and a measure of research & development (R&D) intensity are used as indicators for technological capability. The following six measures of performance are used as dependent variables: return on assets, return on equity, return on sales, market value, market value added, and economic value added. The results vary substantially, depending on which measures are used for the independent and dependent variables. A detailed understanding of precisely what each measure represents and the shortcomings of each measure is needed to explain why these differences exist. We conclude by discussing the effectiveness of a variety of technological capability measures using patent citations, and illustrate why a measure of R&D spending and the total number of patents are usually not valid measures of a firm's technological capability.     

为研发而申请专利还是为专利申请而研发

在传统的“为研发而申请专利”的逻辑下,专利仅仅是研发活动的结果和表现．其战略重要性被明显低估。产业垂直分工和知识型企业的大量涌现表明,专利申请动机已明显地从防御性技术保护向进攻性价值创造转变：专利被视作有形化的知识商品从幕后走上前台成为企业和国家竞相争夺的焦点：对专利认识也正像市场营销理念那样从供应导向观向需求导向观转变。为此．本文提出以“为专利申请而研发”作为逻辑起点的新的专利战略概念框架。     

Technology sourcing and output of established firms in a regime of encompassing technological change

This paper argues that when the technological basis of an industry is changing, the firm's approach to technology sourcing plays a critical role in building the capabilities needed to generate new technical outputs. Using survey and archival data from the U.S. pharmaceutical industry during the period 1981–91, we find that different approaches to technology sourcing (internal R&D and external R&D) are related to different types of biotechnology‐based output at the end of the period. Internal R&D was positively associated with patent output. Acquisition activity was positively related to number of biotechnology‐based products. Greater use of R&D contracts and licenses was associated with stronger reputation for possessing expertise in biotechnology. These findings underscore the importance of taking a multifaceted approach to technology sourcing in order to build the absorptive capacity needed to generate new technical output. Surprisingly, we also found that involvement in joint ventures was negatively related to patent output. This raises interesting questions about the strategic use of joint ventures in a regime of encompassing technological change. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inventor bricolage and firm technology research and development

We examine the conditions around firm use of 'inventor bricolage,' or the reconstruction of technological capabilities through reallocation of extant individual inventors to address new opportunities embodied in patents. Empirically, we examine the dynamics of both firm and individual patenting activity in publicly traded Life Science Diagnostic firms to explore how inventor bricolage is related to firms' existing research and development (R&D) capabilities and firms' acquisition of external capabilities through merger and acquisition (M&A) activities. Evidence at the firm level suggests that breadth of inventors' human capital and collaboration with co-researchers with relevant experience is positively related to inventor bricolage. At the inventor level, the fewer patents an inventor has, the broader the individual's prior patent portfolio, and the more co-researchers with relevant experience, the more likely inventors will patent in a new area. M&A does not appear to have an impact on the utilization of existing human capital. Our findings suggest that R&D managers should assign inventors with less assimilative capacity and more creative capacity in teams where there is relevant experience in order to promote inventor bricolage.     

Patent office in innovation policy: Nobody's perfect

The number of patent applications and “bad” patents issued has been rising rapidly in recent years. Based on this trend, we study the overload problem within the Patent Office and its consequences on the firms' R&D incentives. We assume that the examination process of patent applications is imperfect, and that its quality is poorer under congestion. Depending on policy instruments such as submission fees and the toughness of the non-obviousness requirement, the system may result in a high-R&D equilibrium, in which firms self-select in their patent applications, or in an equilibrium with low R&D, opportunistic patent applications and the issuance of bad patents. Multiple equilibria often co-exist, which deeply undermines the effectiveness of policy instruments. We investigate the robustness of our conclusions as to how the value of patent protection is formalized, taking into consideration the introduction of a penalty system for rejected patent applications, as well as the role of commitment to a given patent protection policy.     

Industry characteristics influencing the technical output: A case of small and medium size firms in the US

Using the small and medium size firms in the US as a sample, this paper reports on interrelationship among patents, publications and new products. Correlates of R&D expenditure, patents and papers and new products are presented. Relationships between firm size and R&D output and productivity are also investigated.
Since the study is based on correlational analysis, causal inferences are not drawn. The data indicates that the three indicators are related, but their strength of relationship varies with industries. Growth of sales is related with new products, but not with patents or papers.
Although the data point to the fact that small firms are more productive than their larger counterparts, there are many reasons to come to such a sweeping generalisation. Reporting of R&D data is not reliable for small firms as the very definition of R&D differs from firm to firm. Nature of R&D also changes as the firm grows in size; opportunities for patents or new products also change accordingly. These make it difficult to accurately measure and compare the R&D efficiency across firms of different sizes.     

Integrating the R&D and Patent Functions: Implications for New Product Performance

This paper examines the impact of cross‐functional integration between the research and development (R&D) and the patent functions on new product development (NPD) performance. The attitudinal (collaboration) and the behavioral (contributions of the patent function to NPD) dimension of cross‐functional integration between the R&D and the patent functions are distinguished. It is also investigated if the level of innovativeness moderates the relationship between the attitudinal and the behavioral dimension of cross‐functional integration between the R&D and the patent department and NPD performance. The four hypotheses are tested based on a multi‐informant sample of 101 NPD projects which are nested within 72 technology‐based firms or strategic business units from multiple industries in Germany. The results show that the attitudinal and the behavioral dimensions of cross‐functional integration between the R&D and the patent functions have a significant and positive impact on NPD performance. This lends empirical support for the notion expressed in the literature that certain managerial capabilities are important for understanding the effect of patenting on appropriability outcomes such as value creation and performance. The level of cross‐functional integration between the patent and the R&D functions appears to be one of these critical patent management capabilities that affect the returns from investments into patents. There is support for the hypothesis that the context matters for the effect of cross‐functional integration between the R&D and the patent functions on NPD performance. In line with the initial hypothesis, the level of innovativeness positively moderates the impact of the behavioral dimension of cross‐functional integration between the R&D and the patent department on NPD performance. In contrast to the initial hypothesis, the findings reveal no moderating effect of the level of innovativeness on the link between the attitudinal dimension of cross‐functional integration between the R&D and the patent department and NPD performance. This implies that joint objectives and an open and trustful working relationship between the R&D and the patent functions are not sufficient for achieving higher NPD performance if firms aim to develop very innovative products. In the case of highly innovative products, the actual behavior, that is, the specific contributions of the patent department to the NPD project, matters. Overall, these findings have important implications for improving performance by means of effectively integrating the patent and the R&D functions during NPD.     

Technology management as part of strategic planning – some empirical results

During the past years R&D management has been broadened into technology management, and the fruitfulness of its integration into strategic management has become clear. Empirical research has shown that R&D contributes relatively more to conventional output measures of firms that capital, and might therefore be expanded. However, whether its strategic direction should be aligned with that of other business functions is less than clear. Better information, including competitor technological intelligence information, is needed to better support strategic decisions.     

企业专利实施及其对策

企业专利实施是企业专利由潜在的生产力转化为现实生产力的重要途径，也是企业技术创新的重要形式。但目前我国专利实施情况仍然不够理想。为此，需要重视促进我国专利实施的对策。这些对策如：将专利实施纳入企业的技术开发和经营管理体系；建立产学研技术开发与转移模式；大力开展专利技术许可证贸易，完善技术市场制度等。     

The importance of internal and external R&D network linkages for R&D organisations: evidence from Singapore

This paper examines the importance of internal and external R&D networks for R&D organisations of multinational firms (MNCs) in Singapore and investigates corresponding R&D management requirements in this context, namely a late-industrialising country in Asia. A unique feature of Singapore is its ability to attract 'high quality' foreign direct investment, involving activities of higher value added and more complex technology without having developed full-fledged R&D activities among its business organisations, thus creating a challenging situation for subsidiary R&D managers, both in the internal R&D organisation as well as in the external research environment. This paper analyses these issues.
Based on in-depth interviews with 53 R&D subsidiaries of MNCs operating in Singapore, this paper identifies internal and external R&D management needs. Through our analysis of data gleaned from these interviews, we found that subsidiary R&D managers need to increase and/or maintain the strategic importance of their R&D site internally within their global corporate R&D organisation. This requires constant upgrading of the technological level at the R&D subsidiary and intense communication with headquarters as well as other R&D subsidiaries. Furthermore, our findings indicate that in the external research environment, subsidiary R&D managers need to create an efficient local network of external players. If these internal and external issues are properly addressed, the R&D subsidiary can effectively contribute to the corporate R&D organisation and be a critical partner in the local research network. Lessons learned from the Singapore experience include the need to develop sufficient local expertise as well as to change the mindset of managers to focus on creativity rather than precise execution.     

Changes in the field of R&D management over the past 20 years

Abstract
The purpose of this bibliographic study is to identify trends of interest in the field of the management of technology in the last 20 years. The data used are based mainly on a classification of the topics covered by papers printed in this journal since its first publication in 1970.
On the whole, interest in most of the topics has remained steady, notably in economics of R&D, communication, innovation and creativity. The only notable decrease in interest has been in project evaluation and selection. Relative to their importance, the authors remark that in some areas in which interest has remained steady, such as creativity and innovation, not enough is being done. Areas in which interest has increased include organizational issues, the interface between R&D and production and the impact of information technology. Interest in technology strategy increased over the early part of the review period but has recently declined.
The authors conclude by listing topics which strongly deserve attention by workers in the field. They cite integration of R&D into corporate strategy, organizing for technological flexibility, technology assessment and transfer, speeding up the R&D process, measuring the impact of new information technology, intrapreneurship and defining the role of basic R&D in technology development.     

When do strategic alliances inhibit innovation by firms? Evidence from patent pools in the global optical disc industry

Research and development (R&D) consortia are specialized strategic alliances that shape the direction and scope of firm innovation activities. Little research exists on the performance consequences of participating in R&D consortia. We study the effect of patent pools, a unique form of R&D consortia, on firm performance in innovation. While prior research on alliances generally implies that patent pools enhance firm innovation, our study finds the opposite. Analyzing data on systemic innovation in the global optical disc industry, we find that patent pool formation substantially and significantly decreases both the quantity and quality of patents subsequently generated by licensors and licensees relative to the patenting activity of nonparticipants. Our empirical findings suggest that patent pools actually inhibit, rather than enhance, systemic innovation by participating firms. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.