Patent and literature statistics – The case of optoelectronics

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of different statistical analyses from patent and literature databases that in combination are helpful for a variety of mostly strategic decision settings in firms. For the case of optoelectronics we assess the patenting and publishing activity of firms and individuals and their citation frequency. The analyses identified leading players in the field, revealed technological dependencies, and the existence of patent clusters as patenting strategies. Co-citation analysis highlighted technological similarities between two firms involved in patent litigation trials. In this science-based technology field individuals combining characteristics of key inventors (a high activity and citation level in patenting) as well as core scientists (a high activity and citation frequency level in publishing) – therefore labelled “R&D dualists” – successfully bridge the gap between science and technology, but are exceptionally rare. Citation-weighted patent counts demonstrated the pivotal impact of one “R&D dualist” in an industrial R&D laboratory, severely affecting the laboratories’ outcome when this individual left. An increasing level of R&D cooperation in particular technological subfields after the individual’s departure could be found. However, patent analysis did not find evidence for long-term competence transfer in these subfields.