Determinants of successful patent applications to combat financial fraud

Abstract

Finding out the characteristics of patent applications that lead to successful grants is an important and yet under-investigated topic in the scientometric literature. Using data from financial fraud-related patent applications submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), this study aims to determine which factors that can be influenced by inventors relate to successful patent grants. A descriptive statistical model is proposed to estimate the likelihood of a patent document being granted by the USPTO based on a number of explanatory variables. The following factors are among the notable statistically significant determinants for the studied patent sample: number of drawings, drafting aggressiveness, proportion of granted patent prior art references, proportion of web-based non-patent literature references, subclass specialization, and representation by a patent attorney or agent. The implications of these empirical findings are discussed in the context of entrepreneurship.