Applicant and examiner citations in U.S. patents: An overview and analysis

Alcácer, Juan; Gittelman, Michelle; Sampat, Bhaven N.

doi:10.1016/j.respol.2008.12.001

Cited by 302 publications

(141 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…First, despite the extensive and wellrecognized role of forward citations in capturing the influence of patents [11,12,20], their use has been questioned. In particular, patent citations are often added by examiners rather than by assignees [11,28], and examiners may lack the necessary resources for conducting an extensive search of the prior art [28] or decide to withhold citations for strategic reasons [29], hence creating some concerns about the reliability of citation-based indicators. Future research efforts should focus on the development of alternative proxies, based, for example, on multi-indicator approaches, to assess patent influence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of patent citations in biotechnology: An analysis of patent influence across the industrial and organizational boundaries

Petruzzelli

Rotolo

Albino

2015

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

153

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The present paper extends the literature investigating key drivers leading certain patents to exert a stronger influence on the subsequent technological developments (inventions) than other ones. We investigated six key determinants, as (i) the use of scientific knowledge, (ii) the breadth of the technological base, (iii) the existence of collaboration in patent development, (iv) the number of claims, (v) the scope, and (vi) the novelty, and how the effect of these determinants varies when patent influence-as measured by the number of forward citations the patent received-is distinguished as within and across the industrial and organizational boundaries. We conducted an empirical analysis on a sample of 5,671 patents granted to 293 US biotechnology firms from 1976 to 2003. Results reveal that the contribution of the determinants to patent influence differs across the domains that are identified by the industrial and organizational boundaries. Findings, for example, show that the use of scientific knowledge negatively affects patent influence outside the biotechnology industry, while it positively contributes to make a patent more relevant for the assignee's subsequent technological developments. In addition, the broader the scope of a patent the higher the number of citations the patent receives from subsequent non-biotechnology patents.This relationship is inverted U-shaped when considering the influence of a patent on inventions granted to other organizations than the patent's assignee. Finally, the novelty of a patent is inverted-U related with the influence the patent exerts on the subsequent inventions granted across the industrial and organizational boundaries.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of patent citations in biotechnology: An analysis of patent influence across the industrial and organizational boundaries

Petruzzelli

Rotolo

Albino

2015

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

153

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…There is a long history of using patent-patent citation data as measures of intellectual influence or knowledge flows between public and private sector research (41,42). Recent work (25,43), however, shows that patent examiners rather than applicants insert many patent-patent citations, casting doubt on their utility as measures of knowledge flows or spillovers (44).…”

Section: Appendix E: Linking Pubmed References To Uspto Patentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The applied value of public investments in biomedical research

Li¹,

Azoulay

Sampat

2017

Science

146

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Scientists and policy makers have long argued that public investments in science have practical applications. Using data on patents linked to U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants over a 27 year period, we provide what we believe to be the first large-scale accounting of linkages between public research investments and subsequent patenting. We find that about 10 percent of NIH grants generate a patent directly, but 30 percent generate articles that are subsequently cited by patents. While policymakers often focus on direct patenting by academic scientists, the bulk of the impact of NIH research on patenting appears to be indirect. We also find no systematic relationship between the 'basic' vs. 'applied' research focus of a grant and its propensity to be cited by a patent.

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“…This latter situation is related to the differences between inventor-and examiner-given SNPRs. Examiners play an important role in adding citations to patents (63% for an average patent), there is a strong firm-specific (mostly technology-field specific) variation, and the highest proportion of citations added by examiners is found for foreign applicants to USPTO (Criscuolo & Verspagen, 2008;Alcácer, Gittelman, & Sampat, 2009). Examiner-given references, however, are not without problems.…”

Section: Context Of Patent Citations To Scientific Publicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patent Citations Analysis and Its Value in Research Evaluation: A Review and a New Approach to Map Technology-relevant Research

Raan

2017

Journal of Data and Information Science

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Purpose First, to review the state-of-the-art in patent citation analysis, particularly characteristics of patent citations to scientific literature (scientific non-patent references, SNPRs). Second, to present a novel mapping approach to identify technology-relevant research based on the papers cited by and referring to the SNPRs. Design/methodology/approach In the review part we discuss the context of SNPRs such as the time lags between scientific achievements and inventions. Also patent-to-patent citation is addressed particularly because this type of patent citation analysis is a major element in the assessment of the economic value of patents. We also review the research on the role of universities and researchers in technological development, with important issues such as universities as sources of technological knowledge and inventor-author relations. We conclude the review part of this paper with an overview of recent research on mapping and network analysis of the science and technology interface and of technological progress in interaction with science. In the second part we apply new techniques for the direct visualization of the cited and citing relations of SNPRs, the mapping of the landscape around SNPRs by bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis, and the mapping of the conceptual environment of SNPRs by keyword co-occurrence analysis. Findings We discuss several properties of SNPRs. Only a small minority of publications covered by the Web of Science or Scopus are cited by patents, about 3%–4%. However, for publications based on university-industry collaboration the number of SNPRs is considerably higher, around 15%. The proposed mapping methodology based on a “second order SNPR approach” enables a better assessment of the technological relevance of research. Research limitations The main limitation is that a more advanced merging of patent and publication data, in particular unification of author and inventor names, in still a necessity. Practical implications The proposed mapping methodology enables the creation of a database of technology-relevant papers (TRPs). In a bibliometric assessment the publications of research groups, research programs or institutes can be matched with the TRPs and thus the extent to which the work of groups, programs or institutes are relevant for technological development can be measured. Originality/value The review part examines a wide range of findings in the research of patent citation analysis. The mapping approach to identify a broad range of technology-relevant papers is novel and offers new opportunities in research evaluation practices.

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Applicant and examiner citations in U.S. patents: An overview and analysis

Cited by 302 publications

References 21 publications

Determinants of patent citations in biotechnology: An analysis of patent influence across the industrial and organizational boundaries

Determinants of patent citations in biotechnology: An analysis of patent influence across the industrial and organizational boundaries

The applied value of public investments in biomedical research

Patent Citations Analysis and Its Value in Research Evaluation: A Review and a New Approach to Map Technology-relevant Research

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