Product Patents Research Articles

Intangibles, innovation, and sector specialization in global value chains: A case study on the EU's and the UK's manufacturing industries

• An input-output framework for the quantification of intangibles as knowledge flows in sectoral linkages. • Classification of intangibles into domestic and imported. • Documented rise in the trade in intangibles for the EU's and the UK's manufacturing industries. • Domestic intangibles are correlated with innovation (patents). • Imported intangibles and patents contribute to manufacturing sectoral specialization in GVCs. • Need for concrete industrial and innovation policy at the national and the EU level. This study explores intangibles in global value chains (GVCs) and empirically investigates their effects on the sectoral specialization of 19 manufacturing industries from the EU-27 and the UK during 2000–2014. We draw data from the newly constructed GLOBALINTO Input-Output Intangibles Database, which was developed under a novel framework for the quantification of intangible assets that treats them as knowledge-intensive intermediate inputs and traded commodities in GVCs. We use this approach to introduce a novel origin dimension by distinguishing between domestic and imported intangibles. The main findings suggest that cross-country intangibles’ trade for the manufacturing sectors in the EU was on the rise during 2000–2014 and appears to be unaffected by the economic crisis. Diverse patterns of intangibles utilization emerge and highlight the significant heterogeneity among different sectors and across countries. Furthermore, we identify a significant correlation between domestic intangible inputs and innovation production (patents) while imported intangibles and patents appear to contribute to sectoral specialization, especially for innovative countries. Our results highlight the need for concrete policy frameworks at the national and the EU level that facilitate trade in intangibles and encompass the heterogeneity among different sectors and different national agendas to improve competitiveness and growth.

Patent productivity: Strategic human resources and the attention-based view

Scholars have argued that choices about a firm’s human resources are critical to innovation and, in turn, firm success. However, studies of the role human resources (HR) in innovation have tended to focus on the individual level. Yet, broader strategic choices about HR can also impact innovation, and specifically the patent productivity of the firm. Here we draw on the attention-based view to guide the examination of three key concerns for strategic HR management by the top management team (TMT), and the relationship of these variables with patent productivity. We specifically examine TMT rhetoric, presence of an HR executive on the TMT, and HR slack. Our examination shows that the innovation rhetoric of the TMT can be beneficial to patent productivity, while HR slack detracts from patent productivity. Looking deeper we find limited support for the notion that time lags positively moderate the influence of innovation rhetoric and the HR executive effect on patent productivity.

Open innovation and information technology use: Towards an operational alignment view

AbstractA centralised open innovation search approach refers to setting up a dedicated and specialised sourcing unit to search external sources for knowledge, while a decentralised open innovation search approach refers to empowering employees in various functional units to search external sources for knowledge during their routine research and development work. This research examines the operational alignment of the open innovation search approach with information technology (IT) use given that open innovation search can be significantly enhanced by IT. We theorise that organisations that have a high extent of employing a centralised (decentralised) open innovation approach and a high IT use intensity for external (internal) information flows are likely to have a high extent of exploratory (exploitative) innovation. We further posit that harnessing exploratory and exploitative innovation can lead to organisational innovation performance. This theory was validated through a field survey involving 186 organisations. The findings from this study advance the IT and open innovation literature by gaining an understanding of the interplay among different open innovation search approaches and IT use, and the resulting variances in innovation performance in terms of new product sales and patents.

Longitudinal study of the impact of three major regulations on the Korean pharmaceutical industry in the last 30 years

BackgroundThe pharmaceutical industry is heavily regulated. Partly for this reason, new drugs generally take over 10 years from the product development stage to market entry. Although regulations affect the pharmaceutical industry over a long period, previous studies investigating the impact of new regulatory policies have usually focused on the short period before and after implementing that policy. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine whether and how significantly regulatory policies affect long-term innovation in the pharmaceutical industry in Korea.MethodsThis study focused on three significant regulatory policies: the introduction of the product patent system, changes in the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) system, and the Drug Expenditure Rationalization Plan (DERP). The study used interrupted time series (ITS) analysis to investigate the long-term impacts of the policies before and after implementation.ResultsOur results show that introducing the product patent system in 1987 significantly increased the number of Korean patent applications. The effect of the revised GMP policies was also statistically significant, both before and after implementation and between pre-emptive companies and non-pre-emptive ones. However, due to the companies' negotiations with the regulatory authorities or the regulatory system that links drug approval and price evaluation, the DERP did not significantly delay new drug registration in Korea.ConclusionThis study showed that the policies of the product patent system, GMP policies, and DERP regulations have significantly encouraged pharmaceutical companies to strive to meet regulatory requirements and promote innovation in Korea. The study suggests that it is necessary for companies to pre-emptively respond to systemic changes in development and production strategies to deal with regulatory changes and achieve sustainable growth. Also, our study results indicate that since government policies motivate the innovative system of the pharmaceutical industry, governmental authorities, when formulating pharmaceutical policies, need to consider the impact on the long-term innovation of the industry.

Measuring the quality of patents among Latin-American universities

ABSTRACT Patents are essential for university technology diffusion to society; however, patent quality in universities, especially in Latin America, has been poorly studied. We create a quality index for patents granted to regional universities by using patent quality variables as patent production, technical relevance, use of top knowledge, technological scope, cooperation, and internationalization. Results show that, on average, Brazilian universities had higher quality than their peers in other countries and that Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá occupies the first position of the ranking for 2016. The main contribution of this paper is to create the first Index for patent quality at universities in the region, and for what we know, the first country aggregated measure of patent quality for universities. This nobel measure is related to research quality in Scopus and Web of Science databases and can be used to complement international university rankings to measure a dimension not previously used by those rankings.

Platform technology management of biotechnology companies in Japan

This study quantitatively and chronologically analyzed the technology management of Japanese biotechnology companies using the patent application data of platforms and products, including patent categorization methods. Nine listed platform companies were analyzed. The results showed that most of the companies continuously maintained their initial platform technologies by filing updated patents, but without filing patents of new platform technologies. Their business models were shifted from a platform model to a platform-product, hybrid model and not a product-focused model. Their product patents generated from platform technologies were mainly for tools, diagnostics, and cell processing technologies, not therapeutics, except in one case; related therapeutics patents were mainly filed by corporate partners. Existing papers that analyzed Japanese biotechnology companies were verified to be partially correct based on our high-resolution patent categorization data; these results supported the usefulness of our approach.

Inventors Dynamics in Balkanic Area: Evidences by a Network Analysis

Abstract: Patent data is a key source of information for innovation economists. In recent decades it has been possible to observe its significant diffusion and success mainly thanks either to archives digitization or to authorities’ greater openness with respect to patent granting procedure. Furthermore, the use of this information over time has not been limited to simple statistics on patents and their classification, but, going further, has extended to the analysis of applicants, inventors, citations, and much more. By this seminal paper, we are going to analyze starting from Data analysis related to a selection of Balkanic Countries, chosen among the most dynamic in innovation process and production of patents: Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. How it will explain into the work, this selection was not accidental: the aim was to represent the evolution of these Countries, in terms of patent internationalization, depending on their “link” with the European Union, not all Western Balkan Countries are in fact part of it. Croatia, an official EU member since 2012, was chosen as the representative state of European influence. Some interesting results were obtained with a novel approach by social network analysis techniques.

Get Pennies from many or get a Dollar from one? Multiple licensing in markets for technology

This paper extends the licensing decision model in prior studies and proposes a two-stage model that explains the effects of product market competition and patent protection on the number of licenses made between technology suppliers and buyers. Using novel survey data on Japanese firms' licensing activities between 2008 and 2010, our empirical investigation finds that more competitors in licensors' product markets lead to more licenses whereas more competitors in licensees' product markets lead to fewer licenses. Further, empirical results also show that patent protection elicits opposite effects in the two stages such that patented technologies are more likely to be licensed but to fewer licensees, compared with non-patented technologies. Finally, the effects of product market competition and patent appear to interact in their joint influence on the number of licenses. • A two-stage model explains the effects of competition and patent on number of licenses. • Competitions in upstream and downstream markets affect number of licenses differently. • Patent protection has opposite effects in the two stages of the licensing decision. • Patented technologies are more likely to be licensed but to fewer licensees.

Exploring the Factors Affecting Technology Transfer in Government-Funded Research Institutes: The Korean Case

Based on the resource dependence theory and the resource-based view, this study examined the impact of the resources and capabilities of government-funded research institutes (GRIs) on technology transfer. Panel analysis was performed on 21 GRIs in South Korea representing three mission types—basic future leading, public infrastructure, and industrialization—for the 2015–2019 period. The analysis confirmed that the factors affecting technology transfer performance differed among GRIs depending on their mission type. For basic future leading GRIs, the number of technology transfer cases was strongly associated with the number of research personnel, while there was a negative relationship between technology transfer and the total budget, the number of research publications, and the number of patent registrations. None of the variables affected the revenue from technology fees. Researchers at these GRIs appear to have a strong motivation for technology transfer, but the priority for resource allocation at the institutional level is the production of papers and patents rather than technology transfer. For public infrastructure GRIs, the number of patents held and the number of technology licensing office (TLO) personnel had a positive impact on the number of technology transfer cases, while none of the variables affected the revenue from technology fees. Thus, the number of patents is more favorable for technology transfer at this type of GRI compared to those that pursue a mission of basic future leading, possibly because their research focus is more related to engineering than to basic science. For industrialization GRIs, the number of TLO personnel affected the number of cases of technology transfer, and the number of patent registrations and TLO personnel affected the revenue from technology fees. The speed of technology development and industrial application is thus much faster in industrialization GRIs than in the other GRI types. The results of this analysis show that mission attributes are important drivers of technology transfer performance. This study thus offers policy implications by illustrating those different resources should be provided to different types of GRI to optimize their technology transfer performance.

Manufacturing Process Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Problem definition: Process innovation is commonly claimed to be a major source of competitive advantage for firms. Despite this perceived influence, it has received substantially less attention than product innovation, and much uncertainty remains about its true association with firm performance. We investigate the relationship between a pharmaceutical firm’s portfolio of manufacturing process innovations and its economic performance. Academic/practical relevance: We uniquely conduct a multidimensional evaluation of a firm’s portfolio of manufacturing process innovations at the product level. This allows a quantitative evaluation of both the relative benefit of the different dimensions of a portfolio as well as the potential complementarities between these in different technological landscapes. Methodology: Through a collaboration with expert patent attorneys, we develop a unique longitudinal data set that combines secondary data and evaluations of a firm’s portfolio of process patents along two key dimensions: novelty and scope. We conduct econometric analyses for a large-scale sample of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) whose product patents have expired and for which process innovation is thus the main source of competitive advantage. Results: We find a positive association between the presence of manufacturing process innovation and firm performance. However, although portfolio’s scope appears to always be beneficial to performance, the effect of novelty alone depends on the ruggedness of the technological landscape: negative in smoother landscapes and positive in more rugged landscapes. Results further suggest that novelty and scope of a portfolio of process innovations are complementary across technological landscapes. Managerial implications: Our results provide important practical insights that can inform the organization and execution of the research and development process across high-technology industries. In particular, although process innovations can be economically beneficial, investing in high-novelty process innovations without a corresponding high scope could jeopardize payoffs, especially in technological landscapes that are relatively smooth.

The impact of offshoring on technical change: Evidence from Swedish manufacturing firms

AbstractThis paper examines the link between offshoring and technical change measured by patent and total factor productivity in order to sort out the causality. It applies instrumental variable and matching approaches on a panel of more than 7000 Swedish manufacturing firms over the period 2001–2014, and identify offshoring‐related intermediate imports by the United Nations Broad Economic Categories system. Accounting for self‐selection and reverse causality, no impact of offshoring on TFP is found and only weak effect on patenting.

Product patents and access to innovative medicines

Enacted in 1995, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights of the World Trade Organisation makes it obligatory for member states to protect pharmaceutical product patents, which has great impacts on global access to medicines. This paper analyses the impact of patents on the availability and affordability of new and innovative medicines in a post-TRIPS era. Our data from IQVIA covers 578 molecules in 70 countries. Using launch data from 1980 to 2017, we find that introducing product patents is important for innovative medicines by speeding up their launch by 14 percent. Innovative medicines are launched sooner than non-innovative ones irrespective of patent regimes. However, we find little evidence that either patentability or innovativeness improves drug availability in low-income countries. With regard to differential pricing, a firm-level strategy to achieve affordable prices for patented medicines, we find that overall, from 2007 to 2017, originator medicine prices are adjusted to local income levels by only 11 percent and generic medicine prices by 26 percent. Prices of generic HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis medicines are much better adjusted to local income—by 69 percent—suggesting that disease-specific global policy responses have led to more affordable prices benefiting people with these diseases in poor countries. Also, brand competition in the molecule market can effectively drive down prices of both originator and generic medicines, implying that multiple generic entry is crucial to achieving drug affordability.

Communications Technology and Innovation in Multinational Enterprises: The Role of Intra-firm Control Rights

We examine the effect of communication technologies on innovation within multinational enterprises (MNEs) by exploiting the staggered country-level introduction of broadband. Drawing upon property-rights theory, we expect that the allocation of R&D control rights within the firm will influence the benefits MNEs realize from communication technologies on innovation. In particular, we theorize that because of the different roles and responsibilities that headquarters and subsidiaries hold within the firm, the effect of communication technologies will depend on whether headquarters or a subsidiary has control rights over its activities. We find that post-broadband increases in patent productivity in R&D subsidiaries is contingent on whether the headquarters or another subsidiary controls the rights to the R&D subsidiary’s innovation. Only subsidiary-controlled R&D exhibit significant improvements in the quantity and quality of patents. Headquarters fails to leverage broadband to foster innovation in R&D subsidiaries. We contribute to the literature on the management of innovation by studying how intra-firm control rights affect knowledge creation and knowledge sharing within the firm. Our study highlights the importance of the internal organization of R&D to understand the implications of technology on innovation.

State-of-the-art techniques in radiation dosimetry – technological segments and applications

This work presents a study based on patent filings as a resource for identifying technological trends in the field of radiation dosimetry for a view of the state-of-the- art techniques, in addition to the main actors involved and patent search process in the area of ionizing radiation. It aimed to make an analysis of patent portfolios to outline an application scenario for the knowledge developed in the area. It was carried out through consultation using the Questel Orbit search and analysis system having the word “dosimetry” and its similars, by semantic similarity, for the years between 1999-2019. The results are discussed regarding the main deposits, depositors, time evolution, technological segments and geographic coverage. They point out that companies that operate simultaneously in the area of energy power generation and medical applications have a significant contribution to the production of patents. Studies focused on the development of dosimetric systems move several technological segments, mainly environmental and medical technology.

The uneven geography of innovation in Turkey: Visualizing the geography and regional relatedness of patent production

Economic geography studies revealed that regional economies are heavily dependent on path-dependent network-based complexities. Innovation and technology are the key concepts for regional economic growth and the uneven geography of innovation is quite decisive for the regional stability of the countries. In this regard, the network topology of the regional relatedness of patent production is embedded on unequal population cartograms in order to better display the uneven geography of innovation in Turkey. The study reveals that the geography of the patent production has a dynamic pattern that it spreads from patent-producing hubs to their surrounding regions that have never produced. Besides, an increasing variety of classes indicates that new technologies are emerging in some regions. Istanbul covers almost 60% of the patent production of the country. There are around 10 industrialized secondary hub regions existing which the two out of them (Adana and Gaziantep, cities of the east closest to the West and Mediterranean zone) are located in eastern Turkey. Eastern regions have medium size connections with the western hub regions which they are attaching to existing major nodes.

Has the Product Patent Regime Impacted Mergers and Acquisitions? Unveiling with a Systematic Literature Review

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are one of the most practised inorganic strategies to multiply economic profits, acquire new product capabilities, expand markets, diversify risk and bring synergistic gains. The purpose of the study is to review the literature related to companies’ financial analysis, pre and post-M&A after the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005. The study follows a systematic literature review (SLR) process where 128 research publications from 2005–2020 are examined after applying the required review protocols. SLR found a deficient practical contribution of the limited literature on the three perspectives, namely, from accounting, productivity and managerial perspectives at the international level. Furthermore, there is also a dearth of studies from the three perspectives for the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry (IPI) post the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005. This review finds that there is a need for a unified approach for evaluating the success of M&A in IPI. Future studies can encourage research that ties these three perspectives to a common thread and furnishes a holistic approach for analysis. It will further bolster the research to provide practical insights to companies’ rooting for a robust financial analysis.

Effect of interdisciplinary teaching on collaborative interactions among nursing student teams in Taiwan: A quasi-experimental study

BackgroundEmpirical research has demonstrated the academic, collaborative, and organizational benefits of Interdisciplinary Teaching. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of Interdisciplinary Teaching in higher education, particular in healthcare education in Taiwan. In addition, there is no consensus on how the effectiveness of this form of teaching should be evaluated. ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of Interdisciplinary Teaching on collaborative interactions for teams of nursing students. DesignA quasi-experimental study design employed pretest-posttest scores on measures of team collaboration to compare an Interdisciplinary Teaching intervention with a control group. SettingCapstone courses at two universities of science and technology in Taiwan, which focused on creating patentable healthcare-related products. ParticipantsNursing students (N = 145) enrolled in capstone courses between September 2019 and January 2020 participated in this study. The intervention group (n = 61) received creativity training from interdisciplinary faculty from departments of nursing and design. The control group (n = 84) received traditional teaching from nursing faculty. MethodsData were collected using self-report instruments for team interaction behaviors, swift trust, and conflict at the beginning and end of the 18-week course. Differences between groups were examined with analysis of covariance. ResultsCompared with controls, nursing students in teams that received the teaching intervention had significantly better mean post-test scores for team interaction behaviors and the subscale for communication (both p < .05); team swift trust and affective-based trust (p < .001); and lower scores for the team conflict subscale of relationships (p = .01). ConclusionsThese findings suggest creativity training using Interdisciplinary Teaching benefited collaborative interactions for interactive behaviors and swift trust, and decreased relationship conflict for teams of nursing students. Interdisciplinary Teaching should be integrated into nursing students' curriculum, which could enhance collaborative interactions and improve the ability of student teams to create novel, patentable healthcare products.

The determinants of eco-innovation at the country level. An analysis for OECD countries.

The main object of this paper is to study the determinants of eco-innovations worldwide. The rising world’s temperature and the increase of natural disasters occurred in most recent years have increased the concerns about the sustainability of the economic activity. In this regard, ecological innovation has been gaining a special relevance in the past years. Despite this, countries are heterogeneous in terms of producing green innovations. This provides us with an opportunity to understand its determinants and to offer a guidance on how to act for both, companies and governments. The study moves into this direction and tries to understand the institutional factors that would explain differences between countries regarding the number of eco-innovations. We test our hypotheses on data collected from PATSTAT. In particular, the study focuses on the production of green patents in countries belonging to the OECD for the period 2007-2015. The emphasis is placed on institutional factors and the results show that intellectual property rights, the effectiveness of the judicial system and protectionism are determining factors of eco-innovations.

Product-assisted Optimization Method Based on Fault and Patent Knowledge Extraction

With the shortening of product life cycles, accelerating the efficiency of product optimization is crucial for companies. For this reason, a method for optimizing the design of auxiliary products with product maintenance data and patent information as the core is proposed. In this method, the text mining technology is used to extract the product maintenance knowledge hidden in the maintenance records, establish a product failure demand matrix to analyse the technical maturity of related fields. According to the patented technology efficacy information, a product knowledge service model for optimization design is established based on patent knowledge and product maintenance information. This model is constructed to provide technical personnel with product optimization knowledge services, which improves the efficiency of product failure optimization and the core competitiveness of the enterprise.

Intellectual property regimes and wage inequality

We use The Patents (Amendment) Act, 2002 in India as a quasi-natural experiment to identify the causal effect of higher incentives for innovation on a firm’s compensation structure. We find that stronger intellectual property (IP) protection has a sharper impact on the demand for managerial skill for technologically advanced firms. Firms that were a-priori above the industry median (in terms of technology adoption, more so for R&D expenditure) witness a rise in the share of managerial compensation by 1.3%–8.3% higher than the rest. This effect is completely driven by firms between 5–8th decile with no effect on firms below the median or at the very top of the technological ladder. This observed “snail-shape” in the firms’ response to the IP shock is rationalized in a model where firms within an industry compete for patents by investing in managerial inputs. The observed increase in wage inequality can partly be attributed to a stronger performance pay for high-tech firms. Associatedly, high-tech firms invested more in technology adoption, started to produce more product varieties at higher quality, and filed for more product patent claims.