Patent Technology Research Articles

A novel endodontic extractor needle for separated instrument retrieval: A new patent technology

A novel endodontic extractor needle for separated instrument retrieval: A new patent technology

Impacts of Skill Centrality on Regional Economic Productivity and Occupational Income

A well‐developed perspective in the study of urban systems is that cities are complex systems that manifest as networks of interdependent economic units. These units might be occupations, industries, labor skills, patent technologies, etc. Much research has focused on describing the nature of these networks, quantifying their links, and suggesting applications for policymakers. In this paper, we examine the US skill network, focusing on the relationship between network centrality and economic performance. Here, nodes are represented by individual labor skills, and edge weights are derived from the colocation pattern of skill pairs among 384 US metropolitan statistical areas. The centrality of skills, using three centrality measures, is then aggregated to the occupational and metropolitan level. We find that occupations with higher skill centrality are associated with greater annual salaries, and metropolitan areas with higher skill centrality have higher productivity rates. Overall, these results suggest that the application of traditional network metrics to this view of cities as complex networks can offer new insights into the dynamics of regional economies.

Quantitative Analysis of China's Artificial Intelligence Technology Patents

Traditional patent statistics cannot accurately reflect the real development level of technology. In order to overcome this deficiency, this study adopts quantitative research methods to conduct empirical research on global artificial intelligence technology-related patent applications, and on this basis, provides suggestions for the government and enterprises on how to improve my country's innovation capabilities in the field of artificial intelligence. First, this paper analyzes patent application trends, technology application areas and innovation trends using the incoPat patent search database and information visualization tools. On this basis, the Herfindahl-Hirschman index is further used to measure and analyze the patent concentration of artificial intelligence technology patent applicants in various regions of my country. The analysis results show that my country has the largest number of patent applications in the area of artificial intelligence technology, but the proportion of high-value patents is relatively low, which needs to be further improved. Patents in the eastern region are relatively scattered, while patents in the western region are relatively concentrated. The government should introduce policies according to local conditions to avoid excessive concentration and dispersion of patents.

A doc2vec and local outlier factor approach to measuring the novelty of patents

• Developing a machine learning approach to measuring the novelty of patents • Integrating doc2vec and the local outlier factor • Representing patents as vectors using textual information of patents • Measuring the novelty of patents on a numerical scale Patent analysis using text mining techniques is an effective way to identify novel technologies. However, the results of previous studies have been of limited use in practice because they require domain-specific knowledge and reflect the limited technological features of patents. As a remedy, this study proposes a machine learning approach to measuring the novelty of patents. At the heart of this approach are doc2vec to represent patents as vectors using textual information of patents and the local outlier factor to measure the novelty of patents on a numerical scale. A case study of 1,877 medical imaging technology patents confirms that our novelty scores are significantly correlated with the relevant patent indicators in the literature and that the novel patents identified have a higher technological impact on average. It is expected that the proposed approach could be useful as a complementary tool to support expert decision-making in identifying new technology opportunities, especially for small and medium-sized companies with limited technological knowledge and resources.

Development of Digital Technology Patents in China: An Analysis of Patent Distribution and Transactions

Development of Digital Technology Patents in China: An Analysis of Patent Distribution and Transactions

Intelligent technologies and productivity spillovers: Evidence from the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The take-off of a Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is at the core of a vibrant academic debate with an increasingly larger number of studies investigating the effects of the latest generation of new technologies, namely artificial intelligence (AI), flexible automation, additive manufacturing, big data, etc., — hereinafter defined as intelligent technologies. A great deal of attention has been paid to the effects associated with the adoption of such transformative technologies, whilst the impact associated with their production, and in particular with the development of related technological knowledge, has remained almost unexplored. Using patent data at country level for a sample of industrialized economies between 1990 and 2014, this paper seeks to quantify the productivity spillovers associated with intelligent technologies. We show that the elasticity of aggregate productivity to the stock of knowledge related to intelligent technologies is statistically significant and economically important, ranging between 0.01 and 0.06. Since these innovations have increased by a factor of 3 from the early 1990s, based on our most conservative estimates, knowledge related to intelligent technologies would account for a range between 3 and 8% of observed productivity change. We also document that the time pattern of productivity spillovers associated with intelligent technology patents may conform to a productivity J-curve, corroborating the view that such innovations could behave as General Purpose Technologies (GPTs).

Presentation and implementation of the results of the own scientific research — a practical approach

During postgraduate studies, future PhDs must master a wide range of teaching and research skills that meet global and European academic standards. In particular, candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy must acquire theoretical knowledge that is sufficient to produce new ideas, solve complex problems in the field of professional and/or research and innovation, acquire universal research skills, including oral and written presentation of their own scientific results, application of modern information technologies in scientific activity, organization and carrying out of educational employments, management of scientific projects and/or introduction of offers concerning financing of scientific researches, registration of the intellectual property rights.
 Objective — to summarize information about the relevance of the discipline «Presentation and imple­mentation of the results of the own scientific research» and highlight practical approaches to its teaching.
 Materials and methods. Analysis and generalization of information on current documents governing the educational process for applicants for the degree of «Doctor of Philosophy» in medical specialties, and literature sources on the presentation and implementation of dissertation research.
 Results and discussion. The discipline «Presentation and implementation of the results of the own scientific research» is an important component of the preparation of graduates of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of knowledge 22 «Health». As part of the study of this discipline, students learn the concept of innovation process and innovation of the scientist, get acquainted with the basics of protection of the results of their own research and modern aspects of patent information search technologies, gain skills in presenting the results of the own research using various forms of new information technologies and implementation in the practice of health care and educational process of the results of the own research.
 Conclusions. Assimilation of theoretical material and practice of the practical part of the program of the discipline «Presentation and implementation of results of the own scientific research» provides acquisition by postgraduate students of corresponding integral, general and special competences and formation of integrative final program results of training necessary for further professional activity of the future doctor of philosophy.

IJHDR´s expectations for 2014

As a new year is coming, this is a proper time to evaluate what we have done,, think our expectations over and define new goals. IJHDR is completing its 6th year with full satisfaction for having fulfilled its mission of providing authors and readers a fully open access multimedia journal focused on High Dilution Research that functions as an unbiased vehicle for the diffusion of new ideas and research results. This heavy but pleasant task is currently performed by a small number of editors with the support of reviewers and authors from all over the world! In 2014, IJHDR will try to grow even more by applying to several databases and adopting new editorial rules and guidelines for authors. To meet those challenges, a new editorial structure ought to be implemented. This topic will be in the agenda all throughout 2014!
 What does IJHDR expect from authors? Possibly too many things!!! New experimental evidences and methodological refinements are expected from the collaboration among various international groups, centers and universities. The discussion concerning the possible participation of nanostructures in the mechanism of action of HD must certainly continue. Informational models focusing on the transfer of medicinal properties might provide us more hints about the nature and characterization of the HD phenomenon. Clinical research, assessment of the quality and efficacy of public and private health systems as well as education experiences are also expected. And why not also technological developments, patents and new products based on HD?
 IJHDR is ready to publish and spread any high quality results associated with the HD phenomenon. We are aware that to perform studies in this field is not an easy task, as a stable background for it is still under construction. And certainly it will not be available in one year’s time!
 On behalf of IJHDR Editorial Staff, I wish you much inspiration, persistence and pleasure in the study of the HD phenomenon!

FUTURE APPLICATION OF MULTISENSORY MIXED REALITY IN THE HUMAN CYBER—PHYSICAL SYSTEM

Mixed reality as an emerging technology can improve users’ experience. Using this technology, people can interact between virtual objects and the real world. Mixed reality has enormous potential for enhancing the human cyber — physical system for different manufacturing functions: planning, designing, production, monitoring, quality control, training, and maintenance. This study aims to understand the existing development of mixed reality technology in manufacturing by analysing patent publications from the InnovationQ-Plus database. Evaluations of trends in this developing technology have focused on qualitative literature reviews and insufficiently on patent technology analytics. Patents connected to mixed reality will be mapped to give technology experts a better grasp of present progress and insights for future technological development in the industry. Thus 709 patent publications are systematically identified and analysed to discover the technological trends. In addition, we map existing patent publications with manufacturing functions, and illustrate this with a technology function matrix. Finally, we identify future research in human cyber — physical system development by enhancing different human senses to give users more sensations while interacting with virtual objects. We provide insight into this human cyber — physical system development in three industries: automotive, food and beverage, and textiles.

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY PATENT CONCENTRATION, 1980-2019

MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY PATENT CONCENTRATION, 1980-2019

Long-term research on technology innovation in the form of new technology patents

Recent changes in innovation development are related to the new technological revolution (Industry 4.0), pandemic, economic crises, and new legislation. These trends provide new opportunities for the improvement of production materials, construction, processes, and capacities. Innovative technologies improve the processes of business analyses and forecasting, as well as new product development, order processing, logistics, production automation, quality control, and marketing. Modern technologies are gradually replacing ergonomically demanding and dangerous occupations. Such innovations are particularly necessary for the transformation of problem companies and regions, as they often have a significant impact on economic development. This study is part of our long-term research on the technology innovation of problem companies and regions. Its primary goal is to methodically emphasize the importance and role of technology innovation management, mainly in problem companies, and analytically compare the innovation success of regions and countries from a global perspective. The study was carried out from 2015 to 2021. The time scope of the analyzed data is 2000–2018. The results show a certain Asian dominance in technology innovation management, in terms of the number of technology patents as well as of the growth dynamics and the ability to overcome the pandemic and crises in general.

Invented here but owned elsewhere: The widening gap between domestic and foreign patent ownership in Canada

Using Canadian-invented patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office during the period between 1995 and 2014, we investigate how ownership of Canadian inventions varies across time and by technology, geographic region, quality of invention, and the presence of superstar firms. Our findings show that the gap between Canadian-invented and Canadian-owned technologies has grown since 1995, and that an increasing number of Canadian-invented patents are owned by foreign, primarily US, firms. In terms of technical areas, Canadian-owned patents in biotechnology have declined and there has been sharp growth in both Canadian- and foreign-owned patents in information technology and telecom. Approximately 60% of Canadian-invented patents originate from Toronto, Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal, Vancouver, Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo (KCW), and Calgary. The quality of Canadian-invented patents increases over time, in part because the number of unassigned patents declines. The quality of foreign-owned patents is higher than the quality of Canadian-owned patents in all CMAs except KCW. At the firm level, while Blackberry and Nortel are responsible for a disproportionate number of Canadian-owned patents, the ownership of foreign-owned patents is more widely distributed. Our findings point to where Canadian innovation vulnerabilities are most severe, where they are worsening, and where there is cause for hope.

Pemodelan topik pada dokumen paten terkait pupuk di Indonesia berbasis Latent Dirichlet Allocation

Introduction. Fertilizer is one of the most important production factors in the world of agriculture. It is crucial to increase the capacity of technology related to fertilizers. Analysis of patent documents can be one way to analyze technological developments, especially fertilizers.
 Data Collection Methods. The data used in this research are metadata, especially the title and abstract of a patent document in Indonesia. With the keyword "fertilizer," Patent metadata was processed in the 1945-2017 period.
 Data Analysis. The LDA model can provide a reasonable interpretation regarding topic modeling based on text data.
 Results and Discussion. The results find that degree of the patent title is better than the abstract of the patent. The LDA approach can adequately separate the topics of fertilizer patent technology so that it does not have multiple interpretations. 
 Conclusion. Based on the findings, there are nine essential topics in the development of fertilizer technology. There is a phenomenon of the lack of technology collaboration between IPC technology sections.

Mathematical Methods for Identification of Core Competitors: Based on Social Networks and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis

Based on the introduction of complex social network theory and methods, this study reveals enterprises' patent layouts to help Chinese enterprises distinguish the core competitors. This study uses the social network analysis method and the system cluster analysis method to systematically analyze the macro technology development trend and competitors' micro technology innovation points. Based on the structure of enterprise resource investment, a two-dimensional matrix with the keyword “similarity-technological competition intensity” was constructed to accurately identify BYD's core technological competitors. In China, BYD company should regard GX company and ND company as core technology competitors, pay attention to the technology development direction and patent layout of YW company and HD company, and pay attention to the patent dynamics of GLM company and YQ company in specific technological innovation points.

Recycling of Waste Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Composites: A Patent-Based Analysis

Fiber-reinforced plastic composite materials are increasingly used in many industrial applications, leading to an increase in the amount of waste that must be treated to avoid environmental problems. Currently, the scientific literature classifies existing recycling technologies into three macro-categories: mechanical, thermal, and chemical; however, none are identified as superior to the others. Therefore, scholars and companies struggle to understand where to focus their efforts. Patent analysis, by relying on quantitative data as a precursor to new technological developments, can contribute to fully grasping current applications of each recycling technology and provide insights about their future development perspectives. Based on these premises, this paper performs a patent technology roadmap to enhance knowledge about prior, current, and future use of the main recycling technologies. The results show that recycling macro-categories have different technology maturity levels and growth potentials. Specifically, mechanical recycling is the most mature, with the lowest growth potential, while thermal and chemical recycling are in their growth stage and present remarkable future opportunities. Moreover, the analysis depicts several perspectives for future development on recycling technologies applications within different industries and underline inter- and intra-category dependencies, thus providing valuable information for practitioners and both academic and non-academic backgrounds researchers interested in the topic.

Knee Exoskeletons Design Approaches to Boost Strength Capability: A Review

There are different devices to increase the strength capacity of people with walking problems. These devices can be classified into exoskeletons, orthotics, and braces. This review aims to identify the state of the art in the design of these medical devices, based on an analysis of patents and literature. However, there are some difficulties in processing the records due to the lack of filters and standardization in the names, generating discrepancies between the search engines, among others. Concerning the patents, 74 patents were analyzed using search engines such as Google Patents, Derwent, The Lens, Patentscope, and Espacenet over the past ten years. A bibliometric analysis was performed using 63 scientific reports from Web of Science and The Lens in the same period for scientific communications. The results show a trend to use the mechanical design of exoskeletons based on articulated rigid structures and elements that provide force to move the structure. These are generally two types: (a) elastic elements and (b) electromechanical elements. The United States accounts for 32% of the technological patents reviewed. The results suggest that the use of exoskeletons or orthoses customized to the users’ needs will continue to increase over the years due to the worldwide growth in disability, particularly related to mobility difficulties and technologies related to the combined use of springs and actuators.

Screening ideas in the early stages of technology development: A word2vec and convolutional neural network approach

Previous patent-based methods for assessing the value of technological ideas face challenges in screening ideas in the early stages of technology development because they require information available at the time or after a patent is granted. Given that the technical descriptions of ideas are usually available in the early stages, we propose an analytical framework for screening ideas by associating the technical descriptions of ideas implied in patents with the number of patent forward citations as a proxy for the technological value of the ideas. Accordingly, word2vec is used to examine the semantic relationships among words and construct matrices representing the technical content of ideas implied in patents. A convolutional neural network is used to model the nonlinear relationships between the matrices and the number of patent forward citations. Once trained, the proposed analytical framework can screen early-stage ideas using only the technical descriptions of the ideas. We explore the varying performance of our framework across different analysis contexts and discuss the research implications for theory and practice. A case study covering 35,376 patents in pharmaceutical technology confirms that the proposed analytical framework identifies most ideas with little technological value and outperforms existing models in terms of accuracy and reliability.

The development trend and academic patent technology network of laser and optical technologies

PurposeThe application of laser and optical technologies in the industry is wide and extensive; the development and application of laser and optical technologies have become a promising research domain. However, most existing studies have focused on the technical aspects or the application aspects; these studies have not highlighted the technology distribution and application development of laser and optical technologies from the big picture. Additionally, the manner in which the research and development (R&D) results of universities correspond to the needs of enterprises and industry has become a topic of concern for the public. Therefore, this study aims to adopt the academic patents as the basis for analysis and to construct a laser and optical technology network.Design/methodology/approachTherefore, in the current study, the researchers have analyzed relevant academic patent technology networks, using academic patents of laser and optical technologies as a basis of analysis.FindingsThe study results indicated that the key technologies mainly lie in nanostructures, metal-working, material analysis and semiconductor devices. Additionally, these technologies are mainly applied in industries, such as optics, medical technology, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and organic fine chemistry; this indicated that a large proportion of academia’s R&D outcomes are applied in these industries.Originality/valueIn this study, the researchers have constructed a technology network model to explore the technical development direction of laser and optical technologies; the results of the current study could serve as a reference for universities and industry for allocation of R&D resources.

Technology Innovation, Economic Growth and Carbon Emissions in the Context of Carbon Neutrality: Evidence from BRICS

This study selects the panel data of five BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) from 1990 to 2019 to empirically explore the impact of technological innovation and economic growth on carbon emissions under the context of carbon neutrality. Granger causality test results signify that there exists a one-way causality from technology patent to carbon emission and from economic growth to carbon emission. We also constructed an improved Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model. The regression results manifest that technology patents contribute to the realization of carbon emission reduction and carbon neutralization, while the economic growth of emerging economies represented by BRICS countries significantly improves carbon emissions, but every single BRICS country shows differentiated carbon emissions conditions with their economic development stages. The impact of the interaction term on carbon emissions for the five BRICS countries also presents country-specific heterogeneity. Moreover, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) test results show that only Russia and South Africa have an inverted U-shaped curve relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions, whereas Brazil, India and China have a U-shaped curve relationship. There exists no EKC relationship when considering BRICS nations as a whole. Further robustness tests also verify that the conclusions obtained in this paper are consistent and stable. Finally, the paper puts forward relevant policy suggestions based on the research findings.

An update of challenges and possible solutions related to ICT patents: the perspective of European stakeholders

ABSTRACT Patents in information and communication technologies (ICTs) are important instruments for protecting companies’ inventions and to appropriate the value of the related inventions. However, the increasing dynamics and complexity in ICTs are challenging the effectiveness of patents. Based on a review of the literature and interviews with relevant stakeholders in Europe, we have identified the most relevant challenges for patents in ICT and possible solutions. These insights have been used as input in framing our broad survey among European stakeholders. The results reveal on the one hand the differences between the patent owners and stakeholders owning no patents, in particular with regards to the various challenges the patent system is facing. On the other hand, the differences disappear in the assessment of the effectiveness of the various solutions. Finally, we conclude with a summary of our main findings.