Empirical research on the characteristics of unutilised patents based on PLDB data focusing on a leading enterprise

Abstract

According to recent surveys, the ratio of utilised patents is around 50% out of the number of patents. This situation means that the protected inventions are not utilised on the market efficiently, resulting less contribution to the innovations and economic growth. There are some researches on the causes and characteristics of unutilised patents but it is not enough to refine patent strategy. Then, in this research, we focused on the relationship between the probability of utilisation and the 'basic-ness' of patents or the evaluations of patents by an applicant, and performed empirical analysis by using patent licensing database and logistic regression. As a result, it was found that the evaluations of patents by an applicant affected the probability both positively and negatively though the basic-ness did not affect. These results are implicative for enterprises, authorities and subsequently researches to improve the utilisation of patents for further industrial development.