Patenting Activity Research Articles

Do technology standards induce innovation in environmental technologies when coordination is important?

A next generation of innovation in enabling and complementary green energy technologies is needed to further accelerate the decarbonization of electricity systems. Few studies have investigated the policy determinants of innovation in this sector to glean insights on how governments may support the development and deployment of these technologies. Policies that were successful at supporting the first wave of renewables innovation may not be sufficient to produce similar results in the next wave of green innovation since those face higher coordination challenges. Using the case of smart grid technology, we investigate the effects of interoperability standards, an instrument that may facilitate coordination through establishing common technological frameworks, on inventive activity. Using firm-level analysis, we find that on average standards decrease firms' patenting activity. We further find that this negative effect is driven by firms with high patenting intensity, whereas standards enable the entry of new firms into the field. We further find suggestive evidence that standards improve innovation quality.

Forty-Six Years of Technological Innovation in Musculoskeletal Medicine: An Analysis of a Patent Database (1973 to 2018).

Technological innovation in orthopaedics is key to advancing patient care. As emerging technologies near maturity, clinicians must be able to objectively assess where and when these technologies can be implemented. Patent databases are an underappreciated resource for quantifying innovation, especially within orthopaedic surgery. This study used a patent database to assess patent activity and relative growth of technologies in musculoskeletal medicine and orthopaedics over a period of 46 years. A total of 121,471 patent records were indexed from Lens.org , a patent database. These patents were grouped into subspecialty clusters and technology clusters using patent codes. Five-year (2014 to 2018), 10-year (2009 to 2018), and 30-year (1989 to 2018) compound annual growth rates were calculated and compared for each cluster. Annual patent activity increased from one patent in 1973 to 4,866 patents in 2018. Of the eight subspecialty clusters, the largest number of patents were related to 'Inflammation' (n = 63,128; 40.57%). The 'Elbow', 'Shoulder', and 'Knee' clusters experienced increased annual patent activity since 2000. Of the 12 technological clusters, the largest number of patents were related to 'Drugs' (n = 55,324; 39.75%). The 'Custom/patient-specific instrumentation, 'Computer Modeling', 'Robotics', and 'Navigation' clusters saw growth in the average annual patent activity since 2000. Innovation, as measured by patent activity in musculoskeletal medicine and orthopaedics, has seen notable growth since 1973. The 'Robotics' cluster seems poised to experience exponential growth in industry investment and technological developments over the next 5 to 10 years. The 'Diagnostics', 'Computer Modeling', 'Navigation', and 'Design and Manufacturing' clusters demonstrate potential for exponential growth in industry investment and technological developments within the next 10 to 20 years.

Patents, foreign direct investment and economic growth in Australia, 1860–2010

AbstractWe examine the long run relationship between innovation and economic development in Australia, using 150 years of data on patenting activity, and aggregate and sectoral economic indicators. Our initial results point to several important causal relationships, particularly the effects of patents on real GDP and of private capital formation on patents. We delve deeper at the sector level and find important causal relationships of patents with real foreign direct investment (FDI) since World War II. Australia's dependence on FDI for private capital formation served as an important stimulus for knowledge creation in key sectors including manufacturing, agriculture and mining.

Green credit and fossil fuel resource efficiency: Advancing sustainability in Asia

The research aims to investigate the correlation between green credit and fossil fuel resource efficiency within the ten ASEAN economies during the period 2000 to 2021, utilizing the CUP-FM (continuous-updated fully modified) estimation technique. The key findings illustrate that a 1% increase in green credit is associated with a 0.059% enhancement in the efficiency of fossil fuel resources across ASEAN member countries. Essentially, this suggests that the implementation of green credit policies in ASEAN nations significantly contributes to the efficient utilization of fossil fuel resources. Furthermore, the analysis indicates that patenting activities have an adverse impact on the efficiency of fossil fuel resource consumption in ASEAN countries. In light of these findings, key policy recommendations include a heightened focus within ASEAN economies on the digitalization of the green credit market, the promotion of sustainable literacy, and the integration of cryptocurrencies in financial transactions related to green credit.

Взаимное влияние интеллектуального капитала и информационных технологий управления

To date, there is a generally accepted idea of intellectual capital, and approaches have been developed to measure it at the micro and macro levels. Methods of patent analytics for the analysis of technological trends have been developed. At the conceptual level, it is known that there is a mutual influence of intellectual capital and technological trends, but there are no methodological developments for quantifying such influence using data from various sources. The purpose of the study was to quantify the mutual influence of national intellectual capital and modern management information technologies at the macro level. The mathematical foundations for the distinction of the components of intellectual capital and technologies were considered. The hypothesis about the statistical significance of the mutual influence of intellectual capital and management information technologies was confirmed. The dependence was approximated by linear regression of the intellectual capital index on the logarithm of the country's patent activity index in the field of IT management methods, which can be interpreted as a slowdown in the growth of the intellectual capital index when a certain level of patent activity is reached. It has been established that the more developed the economy, the higher the level of intellectual capital and the higher level of dissemination of IT management methods. China and India are clear exceptions to this pattern. China, which is an upper-middle-income country, demonstrates higher than the countries of its level of economic development, interconnected values of the index of intellectual capital, and the prevalence of IT-management methods. India, ranked 3rd among lower-middle-income countries, has commensurate rates of development of intellectual capital and the spread of IT-management methods with upper-middle-income countries. Further research may be related to testing hypotheses about quantitative relationships between intellectual capital and technological development via the proposed method. It is necessary to detail the identified dependencies by IPC codes and components of intellectual capital and identify dependencies for other technological areas.

Innovationstrends bei Cloud-Services – Analyse der internationalen Patentaktivitäten

ZusammenfassungDer Einsatz von Cloud-Computing bietet Unternehmen durch die Virtualisierung von Rechenressourcen in Verbindung mit dem Zugriff über das Internet eine Vielzahl neuer Möglichkeiten. Innovative digitale Dienstleistungen können in Form von Cloud-Services genutzt und angeboten werden. Infolge wurden die Entwicklung von Cloud-Diensten in den letzten Jahren stark vorangetrieben und eine Vielzahl von Patenten angemeldet. Neben dem Schutz vor Nachahmung dienen Patente auch als Informationsquelle für technisches Wissen sowie zur Identifikation und Früherkennung von Trends. Für die Analyse der geografischen Innovationstrends im Bereich Cloud-Services werden demzufolge Patentdaten herangezogen und die Patentaktivitäten der Länder näher untersucht. Die Verwendung von Patentdaten als Indikator für Innovationsaktivitäten zeigt, dass auf geografischer Ebene neben den USA die asiatischen Länder, hier insbesondere China, als Innovationstreiber einzustufen sind. China weist dabei aufgrund staatlicher Anreize die höchste Patentaktivität auf. Die asiatischen Länder, insbesondere China, sind somit neben den USA als Innovationstreiber im Bereich Cloud-Services zu identifizieren.

Development of Science and Economic Growth: Statistical and Analytical Review <i>(Case Study: China)</i>

As long as the Chinese economy moves to the forefront in the world, it’s becoming increasingly important to improve the methodology for analyzing its development as well as to identify drivers of its growth. The paper provides a statistical analysis of dynamics of the main indicators characterizing the scientific sphere of the country in 2005–2019: number of R&D personnel; gross domestic expenditures on R&D; patent and publication activities of Chinese scientists. In addition, the relationship between the size of the country's GDP and its high-tech exports was analyzed. For the purpose of studying the indicators in their dynamics a regression analysis based on the Chinese official statistical data was carried out.The paper also presents a forecast of the scale and effectiveness of the China's scientific activity for the period 2022–2024 according to which, while maintaining the existing trends in the development of science and the economy, an increase in the volume of domestic expenditures on R&D is expected in 2024 (more than 3.284 trillion yuan) as well as in the number of issued patents (more than 537 thousand) and in the number of published scientific articles (more than 2.22 million). The carried-out analysis showed the existence of a close relationship between the country's economic growth and the dynamics of its exports of high-tech products. According to the forecast, while maintaining the existing trends in the development of the economy and high-tech exports, the projected values of Chinese GDP are in 2022 – 18.6 trillion US dollars, in 2023 – 20.3 trillion, and in 2024 – 21.7 trillion US dollars.The results of the study showed that China's rapid economic growth was driven by both large-scale capital investments, high rates of increase in labor productivity, and the successful development of science and innovation in all strategic sectors of the economy. The exponential and parabolic growth of almost all key indicators characterizing personnel and financial components of the research sphere, patent, and publication activities, makes it possible to draw a conclusion on strengthening the leadership in the economic position of the People's Republic of China in the world and increasing its scientific potential.

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.

Comparing research trends with patenting activities in the biomedical sector: The case of dementia

Publications and patents have long been regarded as useful sources of technological knowledge in the biomedical sector; thus, they have been analyzed to monitor technology trends and opportunities. However, most previous efforts have focused either on publications as outputs of scientific discovery or patents as outputs of technological development. Few have combined the two databases to derive meaningful implications for identifying new technology opportunities in the biomedical sector. In particular, transforming scientific discovery based on research activities into technological development leading further to commercialization is essential for clinical applications in this sector. Facilitating this process may help achieve efficient and successful research and development (R&D) that requires significant time and cost. Therefore, this study proposed an approach to compare research trends with patenting activities aimed at supporting technology commercialization in the biomedical sector. To achieve this, we employed a semantic analysis of publication data to identify the causal relationships between diseases. We also used co-occurrence analysis of patent data to extract co-treatment relationships between diseases. The analysis results were then integrated to identify diseases that require further drug development. The proposed approach was applied to dementia, and the findings may provide useful insights into technology opportunities for decision-makers in charge of technology planning and commercialization in the biomedical sector.

Analyzing green science-related patents in cosmetics by using artificial intelligence

A deep learning-based method was developed to retrieve and analyze patents related to green sciences in cosmetics. An exploratory phase was conducted with five transformer machine learning models on a training set to screen out the most relevant one. A second phase was implemented to fine-tune the selected model by comparing the results generated by the algorithm to the manual scoring done by an expert on a naive set of data. The final model is based on a combination of BERT-like and Longformers models which successively analyze the abstract, the description and the first claim of each patent. A survey of the patent literature with the selected model shows that key information can be obtained regarding the patenting activity in green sciences in cosmetics.

Examination of related diversification in laggard regions

AbstractIn regions of meagre technology and market activities, traditional innovation metrics (patents and trademarks filed at international offices) may provide limited insight of the mechanisms of regional diversification and therefore policies, including smart specialization. We argue that in such regions, innovation activity, of lower value, can become the seed needed to grow to innovation of international calibre. We provide support by examining both domestic and international patent and trademark activity for Greece's NUTS 3 regions during 2000–2016. We further implement the principle of relatedness and show that regions with related technology (market) capabilities are more likely to exhibit new technology (market) specializations.

Inventor mobility and spillovers in the early semiconductor industry

This paper examines the role of inventor mobility to drive innovation spillovers in the early semiconductor industry. I employ self-collected patent data from the infrequently studied period prior to the industry's shift to Silicon Valley (1946–1959) to track inventor movement across firms and regions. I utilize patent assignments to identify inventor moves and test for increased patenting activity for firms on both sides of a move. The results show increases to patenting after a move on both sides which taper off over a period of several months. I also use the dataset to discuss the broader patterns in the industry during this period, including overall geographic and patenting trends.

Application of Hydrogels and Hydrocarbon-Based Gels in Oil Production Processes and Well Drilling.

The use of gels in oil production processes has become a regular practice in oilfield operations and is constantly developing in all oil-producing countries of the world, as evidenced by the growth of publications and patent activity on this topic. Many oil production processes, such as hydraulic fracturing, conformance control, water, and gas shutoff, cannot be imagined without the use of gel technologies. Inorganic, organic, and hybrid gels are used, as well as foams, gel-forming, and gel-dispersed systems. The possibility of a broad control of structural and mechanical properties, thermal stability, and shear resistance by introducing microscale and nanoscale additives made hydrogels and hydrocarbon-based gels indispensable tools for oil engineers.

Best foot forward? The importance of contractual governance mechanisms for innovation from alliances

This paper examines the impact of alliance partners' ex ante governance choices related to knowledge exchange on ex post innovative outcomes. Building on insights from alliance governance, knowledge-based view, and the contracting literatures, the paper argues that partners’ ex ante contractual commitments signal their strategic intent towards collaboration that will consequently influence their knowledge exchanges during the alliance. It is hypothesized that a contractual commitment to transfer tacit knowledge and the formation of a joint committee are conducive to the generation of innovative outcomes from the alliance. In addition, a contingency perspective is developed and it is hypothesized that the efficacy of these mechanisms varies depending on the extent of co-development of R&D activities and the technological uncertainty of the alliance. The hypotheses are empirically examined using patenting activity from biopharmaceutical alliances in the United States.

The asymmetric effects of oil price shocks on green innovation

Given the global resolve to transit away from traditional energy sources toward a low carbon economy, companies are under increasing pressure to grapple with the tension between long-term business sustainability and short-term energy threat. To assess how companies react to this intertemporal choice, we investigate whether and how green innovation, measured by green patent count and value, is affected by oil price shocks when the energy threat is most acute. Over an extended sample period from 1976 to 2018, we find that oil demand (supply) shock spurs (dampens) the intensity and economic value of green patenting activity. This evidence is attributable to energy efficiency improvement and environmental control. Further, firms with access to finance and those in highly competitive industries are most sensitive to oil price shocks. Finally, distinct from companies that rely on crude oil as energy inputs, oil producers curtail green innovation in wake of oil demand shocks, despite the increased profitability.

An Evolutionary Analysis of Higher-Order Interaction Collaborative Innovation Networks in China’s New Energy Vehicle Industry

As a manifestation of technological innovation achievements, patents reflect the frontier of technological development in the field. The aim of this research is to investigate the spatial evolution of patent collaboration networks and cooperation activities in the Chinese new energy vehicle (NEV) industry. We hypothesize that the higher-order collaboration networks will exhibit the formation of triangle groups centered around core nodes and the emergence of key edges indicating their importance. Key organizations and partners will play a significant role in shaping the future direction of cooperative innovation. The research utilizes data on collaboration patents in the NEV industry in China and constructs higher-order interaction collaboration innovation networks. The spatial evolution of networks and patent cooperation activities are examined using simplex methods. The results indicate that the generalized degree distribution of nodes and edges follows a power-law distribution. Two-dimensional simplex networks gradually form triangle clusters centered on core nodes and key edges. Large companies and research institutes prefer high-depth collaboration, while universities prefer high-breadth collaboration. Furthermore, the development of the new energy vehicle industry has gradually shifted from the eastern region to the central region. In the two-dimensional simplex network, Beijing and Jiangsu play a crucial role as key bridges in fostering stable and deep collaborations. The findings of this study shed light on the spatial evolution of patent collaboration networks and cooperation activities in the Chinese NEV industry. The identification of key organizations and partners, as well as the central positions of certain regions, provides valuable insights for innovation organizations in navigating innovation development and selecting collaboration partners.

The model of technology transfer from the defense industry to the civilian sector of the economy

The need to strengthen technological sovereignty and enhance the technological development of the country requires effective mechanisms for technology transfer, including from the defense sector to the civilian one. The purpose of the article is to propose a possible model for the organization of technology transfer from the military-industrial complex to the civilian sector of the economy. An analysis of statistical materials, current legislation and existing infrastructure showed that patent and technological activity in the country is declining; existing institutional support is insufficient to reverse this trend. One of the possible solutions to this issue is the organization of a technology transfer system, which will allow more active use of the capabilities of the defense industry for the development of civilian industries. The proposed model of such transfer is based on network interaction and coordination of all necessary functions within the technology transfer institution. The principles on which the model is based are substantiated: three levels of management; the possibility of state financing; a “single window” of technology transfer; information circulation; motivation of developers; personnel training system. The stages of technological transfer have been adjusted taking into account the specifics of the defense industry. The function of technological transfer for the transfer of information from industry to science is revealed, it is proposed to expand the use of the model in the direction of forecasting priority areas of science and technology development. From a theoretical point of view, technological transfer is defined as a mixed good, which justifies the role of the state in the presented model.

Strategic or substantive green innovation: How do non-green firms respond to green credit policy?

How does a green credit policy shape non-green firms' green innovation behavior? Previous literature shows that the green credit policy stimulates the quantity of green innovation but is less focused on its quality. Using the enforcement of the Green Credit Guidelines (GCG) in China as a natural experiment, we investigate the influence of the green credit policy on different types of green innovation (i.e., high and low quality). Consistent with the greenwashing hypothesis, we find that non-green firms strategically increase low-quality green innovations but not high-quality ones after the enforcement of the GCG. Additionally, we show that non-green firms are more likely to increase their patenting activities rather than innovation inputs to boost green patents after the enforcement of the GCG. Our study reveals the unintended consequences of the green credit policy and sheds light on non-green firms' strategic green innovation behavior.

Immigration and Innovation: Review on the Effects on Innovation Outputs and Education

Notwithstanding its importance in light of current migration patterns, the link between immigration and innovation is of recent interest and mainly confined to research, focusing on the United States and the European Union, with emerging studies also from Oceania. Thus, the present work will focus on this relation by considering the factors which influence immigrants’contribution to destination countries’overall level of innovation, cultural diversity, demographic agglomeration forces and newcomers’educational background emerge as drivers of innovation which influence patenting activity. Our thematic review not only summarizes the overall positive influence of migration on innovation spillovers, but also its effectiveness in isolating the channels related to education history and labour supply through which this positive influence is exerted.

Международная инновационная активность компаний в области систем пассивного снижения теплопритоков

The article analyzes innovative activity in the technological direction of liquefied natural gas transportation based on trends in patent activity. An analysis of the dynamics of patenting new developments in this area showed a high level of innovative activity both on the part of major market players and in relation to individual authors. The study noted bursts of patent activity in certain periods associated with the development of scientific and technological progress. The most active national markets in this area are China, Japan and South Korea, but the European patent market also has potential for scaling. An assessment of the patent portfolios of companies has identified the most significant players in the market for liquefied natural gas transportation technologies in terms of the value of technical solutions patented by these companies: Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, Chugoku Electric Power, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Osaka Gas, Samsung Heavy Industries, Siemens. The authors give forecasts for the development of the considered technological niche in the corporate and regional context. The obtained results of the study can used in the formation of programs for the innovative development of organizations involved in the implementation of orders in the field of energy and transport.