Does It Matter Who Owns It? A Comparison Study and Demographic Profiling of Patent Ownership and Its Impact on Commercialisation in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Purpose: This study compares the demographic profiling of patent ownership in Sri Lanka with counterparts in other parts of the world. The study also seeks to understand the impact of patent ownership on patent commercial success as Sri Lanka is one of the few countries where a significant number of independent individuals are involved in the innovation process as inventors. Sri Lanka, as a country, struggles to make economic headway through the commercialisation of innovation. This factor of ownership could be an influencing factor for non-commercialisation. The study explores this aspect by comparing ownership between individual held patents with organisational patents on a national scale. The study also compares the findings with other similar global studies. Methodology: A sample of 220 respondents from a national sample comprising individual patent holders and organisational patent holders, including universities (IHL’s), Government Research Organizations (GRI’s) and commercial enterprises, was used in this cross-sectional study and analysed using SPSS version 21. The study uses descriptive statistics and Chai square analysis to address the research questions. The study is limited to patents granted between 2010 and 2014. Findings: The empirical findings confirm that ownership does influence the probability of commercialisation in favour of organisational ownership. The study also reveals a near equal match in demographic profiling with developed countries, indicating a mature inventor community. This finding draws policymakers’ attention to the support required for the most crucial stage of patent commercialisation. Research Implications/Limitation: The study contributes to comparing the demographic profiling of patent holders by ownership category, gender, education, experience, the propensity in the inventions, patent strength, and patent commercialisation with other global studies and helps benchmark the achievement of the SL patents in a global perspective. The limitation of the study is the period selected for analysis as the study setting is set relatively early in the stage of the country’s innovation policy development and should be replicated through the analysis of more recent patents. Originality: Despite the increased interest in patent studies and innovation, very few studies have provided empirical evidence that compares different patent ownership in a single study, especially in the context of an emerging country and the tracking of the patent commercial potential. Therefore, this study contributes to this body of knowledge and the findings valuable for patent holders and policymakers.