Linkage of patent and design right data: Analysis of industrial design activities in companies at the creator level

Abstract

In addition to technological superiority (functional value), attention to design superiority (semantic value) is increasing as a source of competitiveness in product market. In this research, we have created linked data set of utility patent and design patent information of Japan Patent Office to evaluate the design patent data as a source of understanding design innovation. First, machine learning was performed on a classification model for disambiguating the same person of the inventor/creator using data of patent right and design right applied to the Japanese Patent Office. By interconnecting the inventor's and creator's identifiers estimated by the learned classification model, we identified the design creator who also made the patent invention. Next, an empirical analysis is conducted to characterize the design created by an inventor of utility patent. As a result, about half of design patents are found to be created by the same person who is involved by utility patent. However, the division of labor of designer (a creator of design patent) and engineer (inventor of utility patent) is in progress, particularly for a large firm.