Technology strategy for enhancing the public-to-private technology transfer: evidence from the duration of patent

Abstract

Patents are typically characterized as assets of great values. Nevertheless, there are many patents that are actually never used. In this article, we claim that there is a relationship between the duration of patents and the characteristics of the underlying invention. From the viewpoint of Public Research Institutes, the duration of patents may be a proxy of probability of technology transfer because the long lived patents have higher value and more chances to be transferred. We characterize the patents along different dimensions captured by the renewal and application data, i.e. collaboration, scope, competitiveness and attractiveness. The results of hazard rate duration analysis tell us that long lived patents are characterized by being more focused, having more competitiveness, and being more collaborative. In addition, it is analysed that patents in chemical industry expire faster than those in electrical/electronic industry. Though this fact is against the general intuition, it may be reasonable from a viewpoint of technology transfer.

Characteristic features of valuable patents: The difference between private firms and public research institutes in Korea

“…The patents of PRIs are commercialized mainly through licensing to private firms. Thus, whether a patent is renewed is a good measure of the probability of licensing, implying that the main purpose of the patents of PRIs is their industrial application (Lee and Lee, 2008). According to the technology licensing office staff, the renewal of a patent is determined by the measure of its possibility to be licensed.…”

Systemic Introduction to Technology Planning in the Context of Technology Competitiveness

“…Generally, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are more competitive able as regards to the use of emerging technological inventions and know-how, while larger companies have more capacities for own R&D and planning, but also more cost advantages. SMEs do not usually have formulated an explicit technolog y strateg y (TS), while adapting their technological activities to the general market development (Lee and Lee, 2008). Large manufacturing companies mainly formulate their TS, but often do not have enough flexibility to innovate own technologies as the market changes.…”

The lifespan of semiconductor patents by assignee and patent characteristics

“…The most notable indicators of patent values are forward citations [2,5,6] and patent maintenance time [7][8][9]. However, forward citations only indicate that a patent has been cited by another patent.…”

“…Recent empirical studies have employed identification models to explore the factors associated with patent maintenance time [9,14,15], such as maintenance fees [14][15][16], technological domains [9,15,17], the extents of forward citations [2], and the number of claims [9]. The decision to maintain a patent is typically formulated by the patent assignee.…”