Male and female involvement in patenting activity in Spain

Abstract

The involvement of male and female scientists in the technological activity developed in Spain is analysed through the study of patent applications filed with the Spanish OEPM database during the period 1990-2005. Comparative analyses based on participation, contribution and inventors by gender are presented and discussed. The study reveals a low female involvement in technology, which tends to concentrate in specific institutional sectors (public research institutions) and technological sections (A/Human Necessities and C/Chemistry). Over the 16-year period analysed the involvement of female scientists rose at a higher rate than that of men in most of the institutional sectors and technological fields. The highest relative increase corresponds to University and Spanish National Research Council, and our data suggest that it is enhanced by collaboration. To make the production of sex-disaggregated technology indicators easier the inclusion of the sex of the inventors as an additional field in patent databases would be desirable, as well as a higher normalisation of inventor names, applicant names (full names) and institutional affiliations.

IPR gender gaps: a first look at utility model, design right and trademark filings

“…Second, this study contributes to existing literature on gender-specific collaboration patterns by analyzing gender composition of inventor and designer teams. Studies have thus far shown that women tend to invent in larger patent inventor teams (Mauleón and Bordons 2010;Sugimoto et al 2015;Hoisl and Mariani 2016;Martinez et al 2016;Meng 2018). We extend the analysis of collaboration patterns into design rights and UMs.…”

Do age and professional rank influence the order of authorship in scientific publications? Some evidence from a micro-level perspective

“…The remaining authors tend to appear in intermediate positions in descending order of their contribution, with senior authors normally listed at the end. However, in some disciplines such as Mathematics, Economics or High Energy Physics, alphabetical order of authors is followed (AMS 2004; Mauleon and Bordons 2007; Engers et al 1999; Birnholtz 2006; Frandsen and Nicolaisen 2010). …”

The Effects of Gender on the Quality of University Patents and Public Research Centres in Andalusia: is it Better with a Female Presence?

“…Diverse studies, use one of the most important products of technological activity, the patents, as the observation unit (McMillan, 2009;Mauleón & Bordons, 2010). Patents are considered to be good indicators of technological activity (Griliches, 1990;Archibugi, 1992;Basberg, 1987;Nesta & Patel, 2005;Baldini, 2006;OECD, 1997).…”

“…Other studies based on different aspects of commercial activity, such as advice to companies (Ding et al, 2008) and creation of businesses (Rosa & Dawson, 2006;Dahlstrand & Politis, 2013), also emphasize a lower participation of female researchers. In the case of Spain, we should point out the work of (Mauleón & Bordons, 2010), who studied this topic in Universities and the Spanish National Research Council. The results indicate that only 16% of the patents analysed include a woman amongst its inventors, with a 9% contribution to technological output.…”