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TECHNOLOGY INDICATORS BASED ON PATENTS AND PATENT CITATIONS

1988; Elsevier BV; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/b978-0-444-70537-2.50020-9

Francis Narin, Dominic Olivastro,

Intellectual Property and Patents

This chapter covers the use of the U.S. patent system, and in particular citations to and from these U.S. patents, for the preparation of technological indicators. A brief review of patent citation analysis shows that there are valid reasons for believing that highly cited patents are patents of more than average technological impact, and also that citations indicate linkages between companies, between technological areas, and between technology and science. Key aspects of national technological performance are reviewed, as measured by major countries' patents in the U.S. patent systems. An important observation is that, over the last decade, the Japanese share of U.S. patents has doubled from nine to 18 percent, while the U.S. share has dropped by approximate the same amount, with the rest of the world essentially constant. It is also shown that Japanese-invented U.S. patents are the most highly cited patents in the U.S. patent system, and that this indicator of the quality of Japanese innovation has been strong for more than a decade. Finally, the application of these techniques to corporate technological performance is discussed including the use of indicators of activity, linkage and impact in application to competitor assessment, merger acquisition targeting, and investment strategy decisions.