University Patenting Research Articles

The embodiment of knowledge: universities as engines of growth

As universities open themselves up to the marketplace for knowledge and ideas to a greater degree than in the past, debates over university missions has been common. How can universities match their third mission, contribution to society, with their main missions of education and curiosity-driven basic research to achieve their full growth potential? This will require a change in policy attention from targeting university patenting and faculty spin-offs, to taking a broader view on universities’ contribution to economic development, including other pathways, most notably collaborative modes and mobility of trained human capital from academe to industry.

DOES GOVERNMENT FUNDING HAVE THE SAME IMPACT ON ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS AND PATENTS? THE CASE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY IN CANADA

University patenting has become an important research outcome in the past few decades. There has been an increase in the number of faculty patents and individual scientists listed as inventors on patent applications. The effective allocation of funding to universities is of great concern to policymakers. In this paper, we evaluate whether an increase in government funding for academic scientists enhances the performance of researchers in both scientific publications and academic patents or if this merely increases publications in the academic realm. We provide summary statistics from nanotechnology data in Quebec, compare it with other provinces in Canada, and build econometric models of various publication, patenting and grant databases. The analysis illustrates the strong relationship between funding and publication productivity as well as the citation impact of publications. In the light of research performance in patenting activities of academic researchers, this empirical study finds a strong influence on the number of patents. Moreover, increased funding appears to strengthen the citation impact of patents in Quebec, which affects the citation impact of patenting activities.

Attaining a productive structure for technology: The Bayh–Dole effect on university–industry–government relations in developing economy

This paper attempts to provide a systematic assessment of the ‘Bayh–Dole’ effect on the university–industry–government structures of Malaysia, a developing economy, from a quantitative dimension, in order to provide policy-makers with the central aspects of structural change. This paper takes account of those studies which question the significance of university patenting from the perspective of quality and utility. We observe widespread endogenization of university patenting and co-patenting processes in indigenous technology development cycles after the passage of Bayh–Dole-type legislation. The basic research supports and subsequent provisions of Bayh–Dole-type legislation provide us with the implications of strategic policy in attaining a productive network structure for technological innovations. We consider the importance of Bayh–Dole-type legislation in routinizing university research with regard to potential commercial values or applications. Thus, we break new ground in considering what the passage of such legislation actually achieves in a developing economy.

The Idea of Patents vs. the Idea of University

It is generally accepted that patents are a driving force for innovation through research and development. But the university's involvement in patenting is problematic as well. In particular, it is in tension with the idea of a university itself. If patents entail a restriction on the accessibility of the scientific knowledge that has been patented, and if the main purpose of universities is to produce and disseminate knowledge to the public, then, there is a tension: when universities patent their research innovations, they are making the scientific knowledge they produce less accessible to the public. The paper argues that university patenting contradicts the very idea of a university as an institution whose mission is fundamentally to disseminate the knowledge it produces to the public. The practice of university patenting involves an un-academic attitude thus: by inciting an attitude towards knowledge that is not consistent with the proper attitudes and goals of a university, university patenting hurts university's integrity.

Does technological diversification spur university patenting?

Technological diversity, or the breadth of technological knowledge embedded in patented inventions, refers to the range of different technological or economic fields covered by a patent. This paper explores the role of diversification scope in encouraging the production of new patents in European universities by including the diversification scope as an explanatory variable in a patent production function. We hypothesize that the more diversified the patented technology in the university, the greater the production of new patents in subsequent periods. To test this hypothesis we rely on a cross-sectional sample of patents owned by 141 European universities across Europe in 2001–2004. Our empirical findings support the hypothesis of diversification, which means that the production of new patents can be spurred by promoting or stimulating greater levels of technological diversification. This result is robust to both the use of various measures of diversification and to different econometric specifications.

University patenting and technology commercialization – legal frameworks and the importance of local practice

The impact of national legislative frameworks on the higher education sector's contribution to technological innovation is heavily disputed. This paper argues that legislative frameworks may stimulate the development of local practices for the management and exploitation of intellectual property (IP), which in turn determine the level of academic patenting. We present case studies of two comparable universities in each of four selected European countries with different histories of national IP legislation. A within‐country analysis shows that a wider range and earlier development of local IP management and exploitation practices are accompanied by higher levels of academic patenting, and that increasing similarity of IP practices is associated with decreasing differences in patenting outputs. A preliminary cross‐country analysis reveals an expansion in and increasing similarity of practices for IP management and exploitation in countries with different national IP framework histories. We conclude that adopting Bayh‐Dole‐like legislation may trigger the development of local IP practices, which stimulate patenting. However, it is not always sufficient and definitely not always necessary. The study concludes with some policy recommendations.

Technology transfer offices as a nexus within the triple helix: the progression of the university's role

The prospect of increased revenue and spillovers has influenced the mission of the university to reflect an increasingly commercial orientation. This paper focuses on university commercialisation in three countries (Ireland, New Zealand and the USA), through 58 semi-structured interviews with technology transfer officers and a quantitative assessment of university patenting trajectories. Using interviews with technology transfer office executives and university patent applications as proxies for commercial orientation, the study uncovers explanations to the heterogeneous commercial orientation apparent in all three regions. Findings indicate that path dependency; university leadership; technology transfer office scale and connectivity are critical determinants of commercial orientation. The paper concludes by surmising how path dependency might strongly dictate the other determinants and outlines some implications for literature and policy development.

Performances of Technology Transfer Activities of US Universities after Bayh-Dole Act

 Abstract—The activities and performance of university patenting and licensing are studied to gauge the effectiveness of the Bayh-Dole Act, which is the most influential pieces of US legislation on university technology transfer. Based on the raw data from five different sources, the annual numbers of the patents granted, the licenses signed, and the startup companies launched are analyzed. The correlation evaluations are performed for all data presented to quantify the trends at different time periods. It is found that the patenting and licensing activities in US universities slow down greatly after 2000 and remain actually flat until 2010, while the associate activities from 2010 to 2012 are active and strong again to the level in the period before 2000 and after the enactment of the Act. Some explanations on the differences found in the different data sources and different time periods are provided.

Turning Technology into Business Using University Patents

IntroductionNew technologies that might provide solutions to practical problems are constantly being developed at technical universities worldwide. In most cases, the researchers involved report their findings in international scientific journals to share them with their colleagues in the field. Occasionally, these technologies are patented, thereby protecting the intellectual

Turning Technology into Business Using University Patents

IntroductionNew technologies that might provide solutions to practical problems are constantly being developed at technical universities worldwide. In most cases, the researchers involved report their findings in international scientific journals to share them with their colleagues in the field. Occasionally, these technologies are patented, thereby protecting the intellectual

Chinese university patents: quantity, quality, and the role of subsidy programs

Chinese university patenting has gained importance in recent years. Using a comprehensive dataset of university patents by 155 leading Chinese universities from 1991 to 2009, our study pursues two objectives: First, we analyze the quantity and quality of patents filed by leading Chinese universities. Second, we analyze the role of subsidy programs with regard to university patenting in China. With regard to the first objective, our results show that university patents witnessed rapid growth in terms of quantity while patent quality did not increase to a similar degree. Regarding the second objective, we find that a subsidy program to promote research excellence at selected universities is a significant driver of patent quantity and quality. In contrast, a subsidy program that decreases the costs of patent applications seems to enhance patent quantity but not patent quality. We conclude that innovation policies which aim to stimulate patents of higher quality should focus primarily on increasing university R&D, and to a lesser extent on decreasing the costs of university patenting.

University Patent Holders as Entrepreneurs: Factors that Influence Spinout Activity

University patent holders have been encouraged to use their inventions to start technology firms. This has been touted as a major contributor to economic development, value creation, and spillovers. It is theoretically and practically important to understand the antecedents to this activity. In this study, we examine Australian Public Research Organizations (PRO) patent holders and use entrepreneurial attitudes, economic personal situations, as well as the environment in which the patent holders operate to understand the differences between those who chose to follow an entrepreneurial path and those who do not. Using binary logistic regression analysis, we find statistically significant differences between entrepreneur inventors (EIs) and non-entrepreneur inventors (NEIs) across variables that operationalize these frameworks. We also find that attitudes moderate the effect of the personal and macroeconomic situational perceptions, even when the independent effect of the individual variables is not significant. Theory and practice should therefore take a holistic approach in order to unleash the strong synergies across otherwise insignificant factors.

Commercialization of university inventions: Individual and institutional factors affecting licensing of university patents

This paper conducts a unique study using the university patent as the unit of analysis to determine how individual and institutional factors affect the likelihood that a patent will be licensed. Using a 2010 national survey of academic scientists in the United States in which respondents were asked specific questions about 2006 patents for which they were listed as inventors, we find that the likelihood of licensing is significantly determined by individual factors including inventors׳ attitude towards commercialization of research, additional research conducted during patent review, and collaboration with industry scientists on the underlying research. Among institutional factors, university Technology Transfer Office׳s cost-saving measures positively influence licensing, but industry funding and TTO service effectiveness do not. We also identify two types of inventions: opportunity-based inventions are discoveries that are not foreseen patentable at the outset of projects; intention-based inventions occur on research projects that anticipate commercial outcomes before the start of research. Findings demonstrate that different individual and institutional factors contribute to licensing of these two different inventions. This study provides new insights into the process of commercialization of university inventions.

Introduction of Innovations During the 2007-8 Financial Crisis: US Companies Compared with Universities

Financing innovation presents informational and control problems for the financier, and different solutions are used for funding of US companies and universities. In this paper we examine how funding characteristics influenced the change in innovation during the 2007-8 financial crisis for both. We extend prior theories of external financing’s effect on company performance during crises, firstly to university performance, and secondly to show the influence of time variation in aggregate funding. Empirical results are consistent with our theory: external dependence and asset intangibility had a limited effect on company innovation on entering the crisis, but increased university innovation. Overall, however, company patenting was more robust than university patenting, despite the out-performance being masked by respective portfolio characteristics.

Markets versus spillovers in outflows of university research

A substantial body of research has examined the contributions of university research to regional economic development and technological innovation. This literature suggests that the channels through which university-based research affects regional economic or innovative activity may be divided into two broad categories—knowledge “spillovers” (i.e., positive externalities from university research) and “market-mediated” channels such as technology licensing or various types of employment relationships between academic scientists and firms. Yet little research has compared the geographic incidence of these market and nonmarket channels of interaction. This paper compares the localization of knowledge flows from university inventions through market contracts (licenses) and nonmarket “spillovers” exemplified by patent citations. We find knowledge flows through market transactions to be more geographically localized than those operating through nonmarket spillovers. Moreover, the differential effects of distance on licenses and citations are most pronounced for exclusively licensed university patents. We interpret these findings as reflecting the incomplete nature of licensing contracts and the need for licensees to maintain access to inventor knowhow for many university inventions. Such access appears to be less important for inventions that are nonexclusively licensed.

Knowledge creation and exploitation in Italian universities: the role of internal policies for patent activity

Purpose – This paper aims at identifying factors that might affect academic patent activities. It investigates the characteristics of universities acting on the number of academic patents, thus classifying elements of differentiation among universities able to determine the level of patent activity. Design/methodology/approach – Three hypotheses are tested through a regression analysis, considering various academic variables. Findings – Results demonstrate that the patent activity is mainly influenced by the presence of universities’ internal policies that regulate such a field. The adoption of a regulation is a signal for academics of the university inclination and attempt to develop an environment conducive to patent activities, and to offer structured support to inventors in the different phases of the patenting process. Research limitations – The study, as it focuses on a single country, Italy, may reflect some peculiarities of the national system. Future research may extend it to different geographical areas in which institutional and environmental factors are different, or, maintaining the geographical location, study the impact of institutional factors to the change over time in the rate of patenting universities. Originality/value – Unlike the great number of studies which focus on institutional factors affecting university patent activity, the present study explores the academic elements able to valorize and exploit scientific knowledge, providing also a practical guidance for university governance.

Assessments of technology transfer activities of US universities and associated impact of Bayh–Dole Act

Patents and licenses are foundational to successful technology transfer in universities. In this article, the activities and performance of university patenting and licensing are studied to gauge the effectiveness of the Bayh---Dole Act (the "Act"), the most influential piece of US legislation on university technology transfer (UTT). Based on raw data from five sources, the annual numbers of patents granted, licenses signed, startup companies launched, and research expenditures are analyzed. Correlations are performed for all data presented to quantify trends over different time periods. We found that patenting and licensing activities in US universities slowed down greatly after 2000 and remained flat until the period from 2010 to 2012, when activities recover to the level of strength characterizing the period before 2000 and after the enactment of the Act. We identify that economic recessions is the major cause to the flatness of the patenting activities during 2000s. We also explain some of the differences found among different data sources and time periods.

A new industry creation and originality: Insight from the funding sources of university patents

Scientific breakthroughs coming from universities can contribute to the emergence of new industries, such as in the case of biotechnology. Obviously, not all research conducted in universities leads to a radical change from existing technological trajectories. Patents and patent dynamics have long been recognized as critical in understanding the emergence of new technologies and industries. Specifically, patent citations provide insight into the originality of a discovery that has received patent protection. Yet while a large body of literature addresses the impact of patent originality on various firm performance measures, we address the question of what conditions drive patent originality in the process of knowledge creation within the university. Using data on patented cancer research, we examine how research context – as reflected by the funding source for each scientist – is associated with patent originality. We find that when university scientists are partly funded by their own university, they have a higher propensity to generate more original patents. By contrast, university scientists funded either by industry or other non-university organizations have a lower propensity to generate more original patents. The significance of our findings in the cancer research setting call for further research on this question in other research fields.

University patenting: a comparison of 300 leading universities worldwide

Despite a worldwide increase in university patenting, empirical studies have largely focused on analyzing university patenting in individual countries and regions. We provide analyses from an international perspective, examining patents at the top 300 universities worldwide. By providing a patent ranking system and an analysis of the determinants of university patenting, we enable an international comparison not only between different countries but also between universities within countries. A ranking of the top-patenting universities shows a huge predominance of US universities: 18 of the top 25 universities are located in the US, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology being ranked first. Our results show that the propensity to apply for patents is very high among US and Asian universities, while European universities lag behind. In addition to the home country, further determinants of university patenting are the quantity of the universities’ publications and a technological focus in areas such as chemistry and mechanical engineering. However, the size of a university and the quality of its publications are not found to be significant determinants.

Measuring the dynamics of an innovation system using patent data: a case study of South Korea, 2001–2010

The Korean innovation system is analyzed based on patenting and co-patenting behavior between different knowledge producers (university, government, small- and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), conglomerates, individuals) in 34 different technologies. Patent data is obtained from the Korean Intellectual Property Office for the years 2001–2010. The traditional Triple Helix model of university-industry-government relations is expanded to include additional knowledge producers. The results indicate that the Korean innovation system has become less balanced in terms of technology: patent output has tended to grow rapidly in areas in which Korea is already strong. But the innovation system has become more balanced in terms of knowledge producers: SMEs, universities and individuals are being assigned an increasing number of patents. University patenting has grown most rapidly, especially in fast-growing technologies, in which university-business co-patenting is most prevalent. This suggests that rising public investment in university research is paying off, and that university research is industry-relevant. The data also reveal some unexpected changes: patenting by conglomerates rapidly rose from 2001, peaking in 2005, and then fell. Patenting by individuals has continued to rise throughout the period being studied.