Patent Filings Research Articles

Intellectual property use in middle income countries: the case of Chile

A frequently debated question is whether the use of intellectual property (IP) protection benefits the residents of low and middle income countries. We contribute to this debate with an analysis of the use of patents and trademarks by firms in Chile over the decade 1995-2005 as the then middle-income country experienced rapid economic growth. Using a novel dataset containing the merge of detailed firm-level information from the annual manufacturing census with firms’ patent and trademark filings with the Chilean IP office, we look at how IP use by companies has changed over time and analyze the determinants of and outcomes from their use, in particular first-time use. We find that firm growth prompts first-time use of patents and trademarks, though such use does not change the growth trajectory of firms nor does it improve their total factor productivity.

Probiotic in Cosmetics: A Patents Landscape Study

Abstract: Probiotics, described as "live microorganisms that impart a health benefit on the host," are gaining popularity and are also valuable in the personal care industry. Probiotic are used in various cosmeceutical formulations such as anti-wrinkle, antiacne, and anti-ageing due to antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, UV protection, and melanin synthesis inhibitor effects. In this work, a patent trend analysis of probiotic-based cosmetics patents is reported. In the last five years, patent filing has increased manifolds in this area. This study also discusses the inventions shown in the related patents with cosmeceutical compositions and their preparation methods. In conclusion, it has been found that probiotic in cosmetics still have numerous unexplored areas where innovation may flourish. The patent search was conducted using the commercially available CAS SciFinder database and the open-source patent database, The Lens. A total of 928 patents were found for search terms containing "probiotic" and "cosmetic" and retrieved from the database. After the initial screening, 38 patent documents were shortlisted for in-depth analysis. The analysis found that most of the top applicants come from the United States, the Republic of China, and the Republic of Korea, which shows market protection is more important in these countries. These countries lead the patent race in probiotic-based personal care products. The top applicants are related to private companies, universities, and people. The IPC code that has been recorded the most frequently (321 times) is A61K8/99, and it is related to cosmetics or similar toilet preparations from microorganisms other than algae or fungi. The research and development disclosed in most of the patents were focused on exploring or evaluating the mechanism of action of different probiotic strains and their application in skincare and beauty products. The most frequently used probiotic in topical formulations are Lactobacillus sp. and Bafidobacterium sp. Role of probiotics and mechanism of action for treating skin diseases such as skin whitening, skin moisturization, skin ageing, wrinkles, acne, psoriasis, rosacea, etc.

Research Articles - Invention Patents Equilibrium; Research Integration, Spatiotemporal Development Strategy, and Circular Economy

Scientific researchers usually announce their achievements in conferences, magazines, and patent offices. Our study was initiated to improve the ascending ratio of research article publishing versus invention patent filing. World development relies, amongst others, upon two innovation indicators, the volume of Patent applications and the number of Scientific journal articles. To avoid data inconsistencies for our research, we created a new dataset with e corresponding data from different sources like WIPO, OECD, EU, EPO, and SCIMAGO. All primary external data after our calculations created an externally published dataset. After annual and country data analysis, we found irregularities in specific areas like University commercialization, country-specific drawbacks, possible patent troll pursuit, and unexplained gratification for investments through patenting. These results need further clarification at regional patent offices. Our main target was to raise the applied research country impact through patentability. To achieve it, we propose several specific actions. The homogenization of paper/patent worlds under LATEX; the evolvement of the ”claims” patent document into a lawful Artificial Intelligence supplement; and a Patent Stock Exchange as a Circular Economy sustainable asset. Finally, after wandering around the fascinating world of articles and patents, we came to the political correctness of research publishing. We extend the scientist’s effort in three steps. First, the initial research is published in a Research Magazine. Simultaneously or after a maturity stage, a WIPO patent application must be filed. Finally, as the third step, an ”after-Patent” more mature research again in a research magazine.

Patent Relating to Artificial Intelligence and Liability for Artificial Intelligence Application from the us Law Perspectives

Abstract While computer programs were purely tools for people to perform their creative activities 50 years ago, computer programs today, so called Artificial Intelligence(AI), can create intellectual products independently from people. The US has a leading role over all other countries in top-tier AI research, as well as most AI-related patent application filing. Does the US protect such inventions? If not, how does the US deal with liability concerning AI application? How does the development of AI call for intellectual property right law reforms in the US? The paper aims at addressing the above questions. Moreover, the paper provides a comprehensive analysis on AI-related patent in the US in comparison with the Vietnamese legal system. Descriptive legal research, analytical approach, comparison of legislation and case studies are employed in the paper.

The Fourth Amendment of Chinese Patent Law and Discussion on its Practical Effects

Through comparative study, case and data analysis, this article summarizes the key points of the fourth amendment of Chinese Patent Law, and analyses the expected practical significance. Meanwhile, this article also discusses the shortcomings of the new patent law after the fourth amendment, and puts forward some suggestions for further improvement and refinement. The purpose of the fourth amendment of Chinese Patent Law is mainly to make the Chinese patent system more in line with the current technological and economic development in China as well as international cooperative innovation. The core points of the fourth amendment include: (1) strengthening patent enforcement by adopting punitive damages to intentional patent infringement, and increasing the patent protection duration extension for new pharmaceuticals, etc. (2) Promoting patent implementation by adding ‘Open Licence’ rules and improving employees’ invention regulations; (3) Improving design patent protection by expending protection duration and adopting protection for partial designs. (4) Increasing the provisions about the grace period for patent filings of inventions related to public interests. The new Patent Law 2020 will gradually show its significant practical effects. At the same time, however, there are still some regulations that need to be further clarified and refined for ensuring better implementation of the new law.

Status and Trends of Membrane Technology for Wastewater Treatment: A Patent Analysis

Global access to clean water and sanitation has been broadly discussed in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations. In this context, membrane technology has been increasingly applied with great success in wastewater treatment. Considering the relevance of patent information for understanding the current status and future trends of technologies, the patent filings on membrane technology for wastewater treatment in the period from 2011 to 2019 were analyzed. This study comprised a global analysis, aimed at determining the most general aspects, and a qualitative analysis, which consisted of a careful reading of the documents to assess technological statuses and trends. From a total of 7303 patent documents found on the topic, 488 documents were selected for the qualitative analysis. China, Japan and the United States play a leading role in the development of these technologies. Companies constitute the vast majority of the applicants. The focus of the inventions turned out to be: equipment, membranes, customized equipment/processes for specific wastewaters, fouling control and cleaning, combinations of technologies and sustainability. Finally, enhancements in the operational performance of the membrane separation equipment and the development of membrane materials with increased water flow and fouling resistance are found to be key factors to broaden the application of membrane separation technology in wastewater treatment.

How publications and patents are contributing to the development of municipal solid waste management: Viewing the UN Sustainable Development Goals as ground zero

Academia and industry have strengthened each other under the guidelines of regulatory institutions to contribute theoretical knowledge and practical solutions for society, which can be presented in a combination of publishing research and filing patents. In the case of municipal solid waste management (MSWM), a great transformation from a linear to a circular view has been in process. In this study, we investigated the role of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in MSWM-related development and transformation. The authors examined the contributions of academic and industrial spheres to MSWM in the past 70 years by examining Web of Science's Core Collection and Derwent Innovations Index. The results showed that SDGs not only accelerated the research on MSWM but also pulled MSWM-related knowledge and innovation to new fronts that focus on sustainable and circular methods. Based on the current findings, we derived implications for academia, industry, and policymakers.

An insight of intellectual property management practices in the Agriculture Research System

Innovations are key to economic growth and are major contributors towards enhancing food security, higher social development and environment sustainability. In this study, carried out at ICAR-NAARM during the year 2020, an effort is made to understand the ongoing IP management and technology commercialization practices in ICAR and major challenges/pitfalls involved within, along with suggestive corrective measures. This paper provides evidence to measure technology outputs through patent analytics and other desk-research approaches to assess current level of technology transfer process performed by Agri-Business Incubators (ABIs) to create value and societal impact of technologies developed in the system. Results indicate active patent filings across all agricultural sectors, with a major trajectory after 2008 and a policy-based approach to spur technology commercialization in NARES. It also identifies the roadblocks with suggestive mid-course corrections.

Analyzing technology landscape of carbon capture storage and utilization in Baltic Sea region through patents

Capturing CO2 and preventing it from being released into the atmosphere was first suggested in 1977; using existing technology in new ways. CO2 capture technology has been used since the 1920s for separating CO2 sometimes found in natural gas reservoirs from the saleable methane gas. More recently, investment in CCS is being driven by the oil and gas industries as well as cement, iron and steel, and chemical production industries in the push for decarbonization. Once it is separated from other gases, the carbon dioxide is then compressed, transported, and injected underground for permanent storage. About 90-100 % of produced carbon dioxide can be captured in this manner. Many are betting on CCS as a key to greenhouse gas emission reductions, since leveraging CCS is expected to achieve 14-19 % of the reductions needed by 2050 (1,2,3). In 2020, we sent 40 billion metric tons (t) of carbon dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere. We need to cut that number to 0 by 2050 if we are to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The objectives of this paper is to present the patent landscape of Baltic sea region countries (BSR), which includes Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland and Norway. To perform the analysis searches have been conducted to identify patents related to Carbon capture and sequestration for the BSR. Patent analytics searches have been restricted to dates from 2000-2020. Technologies investigated mainly focuses on CO2 storage, monitoring, utilization and transport.The patent analytics searches have been conducted to identify patents related to CCUS technology. The search resulted in 3299 patent families. A relevancy analysis was done to identify patents which are related to CCUS & resulted in 497 patent families. Identified relevant patents have been categorized in a classification scheme. Results of this patent analytics work shows that in 2009 we have the greatest number of IP activity for CCUS. Exponential growth in patent filing since 2005-2009, showing an increasing trend for CCUS activities, 2010-2015 has an exponential decreasing trend for CCUS activities. In northern and eastern Europe, Russia & Poland are leading the research & patent filing in the CCUS domain. From industry point of view General Electrics (GE)has the highest number of publications followed by Mitsubishi and Siemens. 85 % of 497 relevant Patent families are Alive. GE has around 78 % of its families alive. The top patents are related to capture, storage, sequestration or disposal of greenhouse gases and followed by patents related to separation processes. CO2 capture is the most explored technology/CCUS type along with storage. Unfortunately, there is a decreasing trend in patent filings since 2016. The CCUS technologies are striving to gain traction in the set of options for dealing with climate change, but growth is very slow due to absence or low intervention of government action on climate change, public scepticism, increasing costs, and advances in other options including renewables and shale gas.

Academic stars and licensing experience in university technology commercialization

AbstractResearch SummaryWe examine the process by which university technology transfer offices (TTOs) allocate internal resources, which provides insight into technologies offered for commercialization to the private sector. Using detailed administrative records of patenting decisions and outcomes by one prominent U.S. research‐based university's TTO over a 30‐year period, we analyze the performance of invention disclosures by academic stars and by inventors with prior licensing experience. We find that the lead inventor's academic prominence (but not licensing experience) predicts patent application filing, while licensing experience (but not academic prominence) predicts patent impact and commercialization success. We supplement this descriptive analysis with follow‐up interviews and empirical evaluation of possible mechanisms for this seemingly outsized role of academic stars.Managerial SummaryIncreasingly prevalent hybrid organizations are expected to fulfill multiple objectives. University technology transfer offices (TTOs) are an example of a hybrid organization and are charged with disseminating academia‐originated technology for the public good as well as for economic benefit. We study how one TTO allocates internal resources, using comprehensive in‐house administrative data over a 30‐year span. We find that while the TTO tends to put resources behind inventions by academic stars, the commercial returns from licensing inventions from such individuals are no different than inventions by non‐stars. By contrast, inventors' prior licensing experience highly predicts commercial returns. These results illustrate the challenges inherent in internal resource allocation inside a complex hybrid organization.

Barrow Innovation Center: A 5-Year Update and Future Direction

The rich history of neurosurgical innovation served as a model for the Barrow Innovation Center's establishment in 2016. The center's accomplishments are summarized in hopes of fostering the development of similar centers and initiatives within the neurosurgical and broader medical community. A retrospective review (January 2016-July 2021) of patent filings, project proposals, and funding history was used to generate the data presented in this operational review. Through the 5-year period of analysis, 55 prior art searches were conducted on new patentable ideas. A total of 87 provisional patents, 25 Patent Cooperation Treaty applications, and 48 national stage filings were submitted. In partnership with Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, California Polytechnic State University, and Texas A&M University, a total of 27 multidisciplinary projects were conducted with input from multispecialty engineers and scientists. These efforts translated into 1 startup company and 2 licensed patents to commercial companies, with most remaining ideas and project efforts awaiting interest from industry. The multidisciplinary collaborative environment embodied by the Barrow Innovation Center has revolutionized the innovative and entrepreneurial environment of its home institution and enabled neurosurgical residents to get a unique educational experience within the realm of innovation. The bottleneck within the workflow of ideas from conception to commercialization appears to be the establishment of commercial partners; therefore, future efforts within the center will be to establish a panel of industry partnerships to enhance the exposure of ideas to interested companies.

Trade Policy Uncertainty and Medical Innovation: Evidence from Developing Nations

This study explores the influence of trade policy uncertainty on medical innovation investment in developing nations from 1980 to 2020, with a focus on the period of COVID-19. We used exogenous and heterogeneous exposure to trade-policy-uncertainty resolutions from developing countries’ trade policy adjustments, which reduced tariff hikes on imported goods in a double difference-in-differences method. ARDL with PVAR has been studied for long-run and short-run analyses. The findings revealed that reducing tariff uncertainty boosts innovation beyond patent filings and margin reaction and exports. Long-term impacts of sectoral innovation patterns, governmental changes, and foreign technology entering developing nations have little effect on the findings. This paper also shows a long-term link between medical innovation, trade policy uncertainty, and research-and-development spending. Innovation’s negative response to the innovation shock and research and development’s positive response corroborates bidirectional and unidirectional causality. This study contributes to medical innovation and policy uncertainty in terms of developing countries and, most importantly, in trends of medical innovation, contemporaneous policy uncertainty given the inflow of foreign technology, and the importance of that technology recent times.

Brain Gain: The Effect of Employee Quality on Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper investigates whether and how employee quality affects corporate social responsibility (CSR). We find that firms with a high‐quality workforce are associated with more CSR engagement. We use an exogenous shock of household registration reform in China to employee mobility to support a causal inference. The main effect is more pronounced among firms whose human capital has more value‐added (e.g., firms in high‐tech industries, firms with more R&D investment, and patent filings). Further, we show that employees' bargaining power and monitoring role are potential channels through which employee quality affects CSR. Finally, our results also demonstrate that the employee quality effect is economically sizeable and generates positive externalities on future financial performance and firm value.

Information mining in patent filings on injectable antineoplastics as a contribution to Health Policy

Introduction: According to data from the United Nations, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the world. Currently, information management has been increasingly difficult due to the large amount of data to be managed. In general, the databases that store patent documents make it possible to read them in full, but do not allow the extraction and treatment of large amounts of data. In this sense, it is necessary to use management software. Objective: To identify, extract, process the data, organize, and make available, in the form of graphical interfaces, the technological information on injectable oncology described in the current patents. Methodology: Patents deposited between January 2002 and July 2022 were analyzed using the ORBIT Intelligence® platform. In the “Advanced Search” field, the “Title, Abstract” filters were applied and the search terms: “injectable AND cancer” were used. Results and Discussion: 115 patent families were identified. The USA stands out in the number of patent documents filed, presenting a total of 56 documents. Inventors Ivan Edward Hofman, Farber Michael, Franco Rodriguez Guillermo and Gutierro Aduriz Ibon were the most productive, each with 3 documents deposited. The institutions Bespoke Bioscience (USA), Immunocore Holdings (United Kingdom) and Mountain Valley MD Holding (Canada) stood out, each holding 3 documents. In the documents analyzed, the most recurrent technological domain went beyond the "pharmaceutical" technological domain, which obtained 109 documents and others such as chemical, biological, electrical, micro and nanotechnology. Final Considerations: The results obtained by mining the data extracted from patent documents proved to be efficient and, can be useful as an effective tool to analyze, compare and monitor research and innovation activities in injectable oncology.

The patent landscape in the field of stem cell therapy: closing the gap between research and clinic

Stem cell technology is a powerful tool ready to respond to the needs of modern medicine that is experiencing rapid technological development. Given its potential in therapeutic applications, intellectual property rights (IPR) as a protection resource of knowledge are a relevant topic. Patent eligibility of stem cells has been controversial as restrictions to access the fundamental technologies open a gap between research and clinic. Therefore, we depicted the current patent landscape in the field to discuss if this approach moves forward in closing this breach by examining patent activity over the last decade from a transdisciplinary perspective. Stem cell therapeutic applications is an area of continuous growth where patent filing through the PCT is the preferred strategy. Patenting activity is concentrated in the USA, European Union, and Australia; this accumulation in a few key players leads to governance, regulation, and inequality concerns. To boost wealthiness and welfare in society - stem cell therapies' ultimate goal - while at post-pandemic recovery, critical elements in the field of IPR rise to overcome current limitations: to promote bridge builders able to connect the research and business worlds, regulatory updates, novel financing models, new vehicles (startups, spinouts, and spin-offs), and alternative figures of intellectual property.

Patent intelligence of RNA viruses: Implications for combating emerging and re-emerging RNA virus based infectious diseases

The recent outbreak of one of the RNA viruses (2019-nCoV) has affected most of the population and the fatalities reported may label it as a modern-day scourge. Active research on RNA virus infections and vaccine development had more commercial impact which leads to an increase in patent filings. Patents are a goldmine of information whose mining yields crucial technological inputs for further research. In this research article, we have investigated both the patent applications and granted patents, to identify the technological trends and their impact on 2019-nCoV infection using biotechnology-related keywords such as genes, proteins, nucleic acid etc. related to the RNA virus infection. In our research, patent analysis was majorly focused on prospecting for patent data related to the RNA virus infections. Our patent analysis specifically identified spike protein (S protein) and nucleocapsid proteins (N proteins) as the most actively researched macromolecules for vaccine and/or drug development for diagnosis and treatment of RNA virus based infectious diseases. The outcomes of this patent intelligence study will be useful for the researchers who are actively working in the area of vaccine or drug development for RNA virus-based infections including 2019-nCoV and other emerging and re-emerging viral infections in the near future.

Firm innovation and covenant tightness

This study explores the association between firm innovation and loan covenant strictness. We find that lenders construct stricter contracts for firms filing more patents, consistent with lenders imposing more oversight on firms when they enter the commercialization stage after having demonstrated their inventiveness. Our results hold under propensity score matching and entropy balancing, and when exploiting the American Inventors Protection Act as a shock affecting unrelated banks’ access to patent filing information. The relationship we document is stronger when the lender has more expertise and for firms with higher default risk. We demonstrate that borrowers’ patent filings are associated with more future R&D and capital investment and with a higher likelihood of their acquiring firms in the industry of their patent filings. Our results are consistent with the theoretical prediction that lenders interpret patent filings as indicative of high inventive potential that requires stricter discipline and oversight by lenders in order to be converted into actual business success, and with them designing debt contract terms accordingly.

A Rational Approach to Drug Repositioning in β-thalassemia: Induction of Fetal Hemoglobin by Established Drugs.

Drug repositioning and the relevance of orphan drug designation for β-thalassemia is reviewed. Drug repositioning and similar terms ('drug repurposing', 'drug reprofiling', 'drug redirecting', 'drug rescue', 'drug re-tasking' and/or 'drug rediscovery') have gained great attention, especially in the field or rare diseases (RDs), and represent relevant novel drug development strategies to be considered together with the "off-label" use of pharmaceutical products under clinical trial regimen. The most significant advantage of drug repositioning over traditional drug development is that the repositioned drug has already passed a significant number of short- and long-term toxicity tests, as well as it has already undergone pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) studies. The established safety of repositioned drugs is known to significantly reduce the probability of project failure. Furthermore, development of repurposed drugs can shorten much of the time needed to bring a drug to market. Finally, patent filing of repurposed drugs is expected to catch the attention of pharmaceutical industries interested in the development of therapeutic protocols for RDs. Repurposed molecules that could be proposed as potential drugs for β-thalassemia, will be reported, with some of the most solid examples, including sirolimus (rapamycin) that recently has been tested in a pilot clinical trial.

Local Knowledge Base and Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Regions: A Configurational Perspective

According to the central hypothesis of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship – the more knowledge is produced in a region, the more entrepreneurial opportunities are available in it. Recent research extended the theory further, showing that the level of entrepreneurial activities, depends on the configuration of the local knowledge base not only on its size. This paper is aimed at discovering which knowledge profiles are more (and which less) supportive of creating entrepreneurial opportunities. It is motivated by disagreements and conflicting evidence on fundamental matters across all three frequently used dimensions - the type of knowledge source that contributes to new knowledge within a region (i.e., universities or private incumbent firms); the presence/absence of a dominant source of new knowledge within a region (i.e., an anchor tenant); and the specialization/diversity of technological knowledge that is created within a region. We analyze data from 33 regions using statistics on patent filings between 2011 and 2015 and a number of created startups in these regions. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) we confirm that a region’s potential for knowledge spillovers, and, thus, entrepreneurial activities, depends on the configuration of the local knowledge base, specifying what configurations are antecedent to creating more entrepreneurial opportunities. Our analysis also shows low synergy from the simultaneous presence of knowledge created by universities and industry in a given area, as these two are, under some conditions, substituting each other in stimulating knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship at the local level. Third, we show that the specialization/diversity of technological knowledge that is created within a region does not play an important role in creating a high number of entrepreneurial opportunities. These findings bring a new perspective and contribute to settling down some of the lasting debates, opening opportunities for further research and rethinking policy measures.

Characteristics Of Key Patents Covering Recent FDA-Approved Drugs.

New drugs are protected by patents that block generic competition and allow manufacturers to charge high prices. To examine the breadth and characteristics of the key patents covering recently approved brand-name drugs, we extracted patents from the list maintained by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and evaluated the timing of patent filings, features of the drugs covered by patents, and whether similar patents were sought in other countries. Among seventy-eight qualifying drug approvals in 2019 and 2020, ten had zero patents, and the remaining sixty-eight drugs listed 322 different patents (the median number was 4). The most common category of patents, based on the nature of the invention being protected, was chemical compound (201; 62percent), followed by method of use (195; 61percent). The median time from originator drug approval to the expiration date of the final patent listed on our date of data collection was 10.3years. About one in five patents had no counterparts in other major jurisdictions around the world, suggesting either a different manufacturer strategy or a differing application of patent standards in the US than in other comparable settings. Patents covering newly approved drugs largely protect the product and its uses; this shows that patent reform, rather than changes to nonpatent exclusivities, is the key to ensuring timely generic entry.