Search Results
Abstract
This paper makes the assumption that Norwegian patenting in the US reflects a quasi-universe of Norwegian technological capabilities. Based on this assumption, the paper combines a "patent-bibliometrics" and a "technometrics" approach to study other relevant bodies of knowledge these capabilities build upon. In order to study interactions at the "science-technology-innovation interface", the paper maps the citation patterns that radiate from the patent population (1990–96) to other areas of technology (patent-citations) and to science-bases (citations to Non-Patent Literature or NPL). The study identifies important technology-technology links that involve machinery, process-engineering and chemical and significant science-technology links that involve pharmaceuticals and instruments.
Abstract
The paper presents a methodology for studying the interactions between science and technology. Our approach rests mostly on patent citation and co-word analysis. In particular, this study aims to delineate intellectual spaces in thin-film technology in terms of science/technology interaction. The universe of thin-film patents can be viewed as the macro-level and starting point of our analysis. Applying a bottom-up approach, intellectual spaces at the micro-level are defined by tracing prominent concepts in publications, patents, and their citations of scientific literature. In another step, co-word analysis is used to generate meso-level topics and sub-topics. Overlapping structures and specificities that emerge are explored in the light of theoretical understanding of science-technology interactions. In particular, one can distinguish prominent concepts among patent citations that either co-occur in both thin-film publications and patents or reach out to one of the two sides. Future research may address the question to what extent one can interpret directionality into this.
Abstract
Since the pioneering studies of Carpenter & Narin (1983), and Narin & Noma (1985), non-patent references (NPRs) in patent documents have been widely used as an indicator of science-technology links. Meyer (2000) reviewed previous work in the patent citation literature and found that citation links between patents and papers are, if not explicitly, at least implicitly viewed as an indication of the contribution of science to technology. Using a sample of 850 patents of New Zealand companies granted by the USPTO between 1976 and 2004, we find evidence of systematic noise in NPR data. We suggest that future research should pay close attention to heterogeneity among countries, and that one should demonstrate more caution in applying and interpreting results based on the NPR methodology.
Abstract
Most studies of patents citations focus on national or international contexts, especially contexts of high absorptive capacity, and employ examiner citations. We argue that results can vary if we take the region as the context of analysis, especially if it is a region with low absorptive capacity, and if we study applicant citations and examiner-inserted citations separately. Using a sample from the Valencian Community (Spain), we conclude that (i) the use of examiner-inserted citations as a proxy for applicant citations, (ii) the interpretation of non-patent references as indicators of science-industry links, and (iii) the traditional results for geographical localization are not generalizable to all regions with low absorptive capacity.
Abstract
The objective of this research is to develop a new patent bibliometric performance measure by using modified citation rate analyses with dynamic backward citation windows. Cited half-life employed in bibliometrics was adopted in order to establish a model of annual patent backward citation windows. Based on the dynamic behavior of backward citation windows, the annual backward patent citation rates for each technology domain can be calculated to measure its bibliometric performance. It was found that the dynamic backward citation window represents more accurately the citation cycle time which is a key factor on technology assessment. Because different technology domain may have disparate attributes, a normalized backward citation rate was developed to measure the corresponding rank for each domain respect to the entire industry. Three technology domains were then chosen for demonstrative case studies which represent semiconductor, LCD, and drug industries.
Abstract
This paper gives an overview of quantitative approaches used to study the science/technology linkage. Our discussion is informed by a number of theoretical approaches that have emerged over the past few years in the area of innovation studies emphasizing the exchange of actors in innovation system and a shift in the division of labour between publicly funded basic research and industrial development of technology. We review the more quantitative literature on efforts made to study such linkage phenomena, to which theorizing in the science policy area has attributed great importance. We then introduce a typology of three approaches to study the science/technology linkage - patent citation, industrial science, and university patenting. For each approach, we shall discuss merits and possible disadvantages. In another step we illustrate them using results from studies of the Finnish innovation system. Finally, we list key limitations of the informetric methods and point to possible hybrid approaches that could remedy some of them.
Abstract
In our 1975 monograph 
Evaluative Bibliometrics
we discussed the many uses of publication and citation analysis in the evaluation of scientific activities, and some of the basic statistical properties of the scientific literature, particularly the skewness of the distributions of publications and citations, reference time distributions, and various anomalies in the citation patterns from one country to another. Over the last ten years we have devoted much of our energy to the development of an analogous research base and infrastructure for patent bibliometrics, that is for the use of patents, and patent citations in the evaluation of technological activities. There are remarkable similarities between literature bibliometrics and patent bibliometrics, and they are both applicable to the same wide ranges of problems. This paper will show that there are striking similarities between literature and patent distributions of national productivity, inventor productivity, referencing cycles, citation impact and within country citation preferences.
Abstract
Patent information on 7392 inventors who received 9 or more U.S. Patents during 1975–84 was obtained. Analysis of the frequency distribution of patents per inventor reveals an approximately logarithmic decline from 9 to approximately 45 patents per inventor. The rate of decline decreases significantly for patent output above 45 patents per inventor. Patent citation analysis on 45 randomly selected inventors was performed. This sample included inventors who received from 9 to over 100 patents. The group received 1.79 citations per patent, 56.8% of the patents received at least 1 citation, and 2.7% of the patents received 10 or more citations. No statistically significant differences for these averages was found across the range of inventor patent output. No significant decline of patent quality with increased yearly patent output was observed.
Patent Office Society and Harry C. Hart endorsed the idea in a later issue (Garfield and Merton 1979 ). Although this idea was brought up at that time, neither patent citation nor other bibliometrics methods were broadly applied to patent literature
Abstract
Patents are important intellectual assets for companies to defend or to claim their technological rights. To control R&D cost, companies should carefully examine their patents by patent quality. Approaches to evaluating patent quality are mostly a posteriori uses of factual information of patent quality. This paper examined whether patent quality can be predicted a priori, i.e., during the early years after a patent is granted, by analyzing information embedded in a network of patent citations. Social network analysis was applied to analyze two network positions occupied by a patent, brokerage and closure to determine whether either position is a good predictor of patent quality. Patent renewal decisions and forward citations were adopted as surrogates of patent quality. The analytical results showed that forward citations can be positively predicted by the brokerage position and negatively predicted by the closure position in the early and mature stages. Renewal decisions can be negatively predicted by the brokerage position in the early stage, and the closure position influences the renewal decision in a different way in the early and mature stages. These analytical results imply that a company should focus on developing patents that bridge different technologies as its technological developments reach maturity.
