美国临时专利申请案的申请特性研究

[研究目的]美国临时专利申请制度类似于本国优先权制度,已经实施了二十余年,它的存在是否有助于促进发明创造,提高专利质量?若是,则对我国完善知识产权保护,提高专利申请质量,建设知识产权强国具有重要借鉴意义。[研究方法]使用美国USPTO专利数据库,首先考察美国临时专利申请案的特性,然后使用6个与专利质量相关的指标比较了主张临时专利申请案优先权的专利(PA)和未主张临时专利申请案优先权的专利(NPA)的质量差异,并运用Logistics模型分析哪一专利指标与PA的关联性最强。[研究结论]研究表明,2004-2018年间,美国临时专利申请案不但存在国别(地区)差异,而且技术领域也存在显著差异。PA和NPA在平均前引和后引次数、专利权利要求数量、专利家族规模以及审查持续时间方面存在显著差异,主张临时专利申请案优先权的专利确实具有更高的专利质量,且专利请求项数与PA的关联性最强。     

Patent claims and patent scope

Patent scope is one of the important aspects in the debates over “patent quality.” The purported decrease in patent quality over the last decade or two has supposedly led to granting patents of increased breadth, decreased clarity, and questionable validity (in part due to over-breadth). Such patents allegedly diminish the incentives for innovation due to increased transaction costs in the market for technology, more frequent disputes and litigation, trolling behavior, and breakdowns in bargaining. This paper focuses on the patent examination process at the PTO, highlighting the relationship between patent scope and the patent examination process. We develop and validate two measurements of patent scope: independent claim length and independent claim count. These metrics—in contrast to other measurements of patent scope—can be calculated before and after examination and enable us to provide the first large-scale analysis of trends in patent scope changes during the examination process. Our results show that applications with narrower scope are associated with a higher probability of grant and a shorter and less intense examination period in comparison to applications with broader scope. Further, we find that the examination process itself tends to narrow the scope of patents relative to the scope at filing, and that the changes are more significant when the duration and intensity of examination is increased. We explain our metrics and make our data available in a public use dataset, which we hope will encourage more research in the evaluation of patent scope, patent examination, and patent quality more broadly.     

Using patent citation patterns to infer innovation market competition

We propose an empirical strategy to estimate competition in innovation markets. Our method relates firms’ market return on equity to information about patent citation patterns. Two innovations are implemented in the methodology. First is the application of daily abnormal stock returns rather than annual measures of Tobin's q. Second is the creation of citation patterns related to the area of science a firm patents in as represented by the detailed patent classification system. We find that markets positively reward firms when patents are granted. We further find that firm's market value increases when its patent portfolio is cited. We find evidence of competition in innovation markets. The market reacts at the time that the citation occurs and does not anticipate future citations at the time of patenting. Holding this effect constant, we find that citations from patents in the same area of science tend to reduce market value. We interpret these findings as consistent with more citations indicating more valuable intellectual property but citations from competing technologies decreasing it.     

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

Prior art patent citations have become a popular measure of patent quality and knowledge flow between firms. Interpreting these measurements is complicated, in some cases, because prior art citations are added by patent examiners as well as by patent applicants. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) adopted new reporting procedures in 2001, making it possible to measure examiner and applicant citations separately for the first time. We analyzed prior art citations listed in all U.S. patents granted in 2001-2003, and found that examiners played a significant role in identifying prior art, adding 63% of citations on the average patent, and all citations on 40% of patents granted. An analysis of variance found that firm-specific variables explain most of the variation in examiner-citation shares. Using multivariate regression, we found that foreign applicants to the USPTO had the highest proportion of citations added by examiners. High-volume patent applicants had a greater proportion of examiner citations, and a substantial number of firms won patents without listing a single applicant citation. In terms of technology, we found higher examiner shares among patents in electronics, communications, and computer-related fields. Taken together, our findings suggest that firm-level patenting practices, particularly among high-volume applicants, have a strong influence on citation data and merit additional research.     

Citations backward and forward: Insights into the patent examiner's role

Examiners’ instructions and academic studies on patent validity determination focus on identification of “blocking” citations that invalidate claims in applications as non-novel or obvious, generally ignoring the non-blocking majority as irrelevant to validity. Recently available datasets allow us to identify, for the first time, “forward” citations received by applications before grant, as well as “backward” citations in those applications, and distinguish those identified by the examiner as blocking (submitted mainly by examiners), as well as non-blocking examiner and applicant citations. Categorical analysis confirms that blocking citations in an application strongly negatively predict its grant, but positively predict grant of the cited blocking applications. Non-blocking applicant and examiner citations in an application equally strongly predict its grant, but do not predict grant of cited applications. We test whether expected value – measured by applicant forward citations to the application prior to its grant – affects probability of grant, with negative results. These findings expand our understanding of the scope of examiners’ and applicants’ roles as mediators of validity-relevant information in applications.     

The influence of strategic patenting on companies’ patent portfolios

This paper analyses whether strategic motives for patenting influence the characteristics of companies’ patent portfolios. We use the number of citations and oppositions to represent these characteristics. The analysis is based on survey data from German companies, which are combined with EPO data covering applications from 1991 to 2000. We find clear evidence that the companies’ patenting strategies are related to the characteristics of their patent portfolios. First, companies using patents in the traditional way to protect their technological knowledge base receive a higher number of forward citations for their patents. Second, the motive of offensive - but not of defensive - blocking is related to a higher incidence of oppositions, whereas companies using patents as bartering chips in collaborations receive fewer citations and fewer oppositions to their patents.     

Continuing patent applications at the USPTO

Despite their growing importance for firm innovation strategy and frequent appearance in U.S. patent policy debates, how continuing patent applications are used remains unclear. Turn-of-the-century reforms strongly limited opportunities to extend patent term and surprise competitors, but continuing applications have steadily risen since. We argue that they retain a subtle use, as applicants can file continuations to keep prosecution open and change patent scope after locking in gains with the initial patent. We document a sharp drop in parent abandonment and rise in continuations per original patent after the reforms. Continuing applications are more privately valuable than original patents, are filed in more uncertain contexts, for higher value technologies, by more strategic applicants, and react strongly to the notice of allowance. The evidence supports a current strategic use of continuing applications to craft claims over time.     

加强专利保护对我国创新活动影响的实证研究

 以我国地区大中型工业企业数据为样本,分别从技术投入与产出角度实证分析了加强专利保护的相应影响,发现随着专利保护的增强,企业的研发投入下降而专利申请活动反而增加。本文推断：我国企业整体技术创新能力还不足以进行高水平的创新活动,专利保护政策的加强无法激励出更多的研发投入;更强的专利保护提升了企业的专利保护意识,企业申请专利不仅能获得研发投资收益,也可能是为了构建专利组合以在累积创新背景下应对专利要挟或向竞争企业抽取利润。     

基于无效程序的ICT领域专利质量影响因素研究

专利无效程序对于控制专利质量具有重要作用。以2008-2017年期间信息通信技术（ICT）领域被提起无效宣告请求的专利为样本,在根据专利有效性进行分组的基础上,分析“维持有效”和“宣告无效”两组专利在6项指标及在无效程序中援引法条的差异。结果显示：技术覆盖范围和引证专利数与专利质量显著负相关,非专利文献引用数与专利质量正相关;专利质量还与技术可专利性及专利文件的撰写和修改具有重要关系,专利可能会因为专利申请和修改过程中的程序和实体等基本问题被宣告无效。因此,评价专利质量时不仅应当重视技术和经济指标,还应对专利申请、授权、无效审查过程中可能涉及的相关因素进行综合考察,特别是专利无效审查时可能涉及到的专利文献内容等。     

南稻北麦、群体信任与协作创新

   种植历史影响了区域文化,区域文化的不同影响了群体信任进而影响协作创新。文章基于 “南稻北麦”理论解释文化差异,使用 2007—2014年间16 795个中国上市公司专利数据,实证检验了区域文化差异对企业协作创新的影响。实证结果表明：水稻文化形成的群体信任对企业创新有很大帮助,但是相对于发明专利和实用新型专利,这种正面效应更主要体现在外形设计专利上,尤其是对长期的累积有效专利和民营上市公司的创新具有更显著的促进作用。小麦文化形成的一般性信任对于国有上市公司的实用新型专利更有促进作用,并且政府对创新的支持有更强的累积效应;各省份政府R&D资助对于发明专利的贡献要依次高于实用新型专利和外观设计专利,对于国有企业创新的贡献要高于民营企业。各种检验均表明本文结论具有稳健性。因此,政府应不断加强文化建设,积极传承文化,鼓励协作创新,重视文化因素在企业创新中的作用;坚持加大对创新、对R&D的投入,完善科技投入的稳定增长机制。在关系国家创新能力的发明创造方面,还需要中央政府和地方政府合力重点支持大型国有企业,增强国企及其经营者的危机感和使命感,激发其创新精神。     

基于语义特征的潜在标准必要专利识别研究

   潜在标准必要专利在未来市场中具有极高的战略价值和经济价值,企业如何抢先识别这些专利对建设创新型国家、优化企业专利布局、加快技术创新、提升行业地位、规避专利挟持具有重要意义。但目前关于自动化识别潜在标准必要专利的研究尚少。本文从提取标准必要专利语义特征的视角下,提出利用Bert-CNN网络模型结合上下文对已知标准必要专利的隐性全局语义特征和高维层次语义特征双重提取,依据特征提取结果识别潜在标准必要专利,并通过计算Bert向量相似度预测潜在标准必要专利可能对应的标准。实证部分以ETSI欧洲标准化协会发布的标准必要专利构建数据验证集对模型的性能进行验证,结果显示本模型在大规模专利数据实验中的精准率、召回率、F1值优于已有研究。     

An examination of the intertemporal returns of patented inventions

This paper examines the intertemporal returns of patented inventions using estimates of patent value obtained from German employee inventors’ compensation records. The paper finds heterogeneity in the mean age and dispersion of the annual returns by technology and cumulative patent value. While the returns earned by most patents dissipate rapidly, high valued patents tend to receive significant returns through the latter part of the patent term. These high valued patents which account for the vast majority of the realized returns, further can be identified based on past returns, relatively early in the patent term. These findings suggest that while shortening the length of the patent term could substantially reduce realized returns, graduated maintenance fees may not adversely affect returns, as firms would be able to identify and selectively renew the subset of high valued patents.     

专利价值再认识:大学专利转让的实证研究

高价值专利工作已经成为我国经济社会发展的一个重要方面,合理认识、科学评价专利价值是开展相关工作的重要前提和手段。从保护范围、创新水平、主体特征、时间因素等方面系统回顾、梳理了有关专利价值的客观指标。利用手动收集的1704项大学转让专利,用转让价格测量价值,实证分析了相关指标对专利价值的影响,发现专利价值是内生的。整体上,权利要求数、专利文献页数、海外同族专利数、独立权利要求字数、专利寿命对专利价值有显著的影响,发明人数量、专利审查时间、专利引用信息、是否与企业合作没有表现出与专利价值的显著相关性。分别以5万元、10万元、15万元为临界值进行逻辑回归发现,真正高价值的专利不仅具有法律意义上的高质量,技术上的高水平是其高价值的重要基础。     

技术锁定视角下的专利价值影响因素分析

[目的/意义]燃料电池作为新能源产业的核心部件，培育并评价其高价值专利对于我国突破国外“技术锁定”，对实现技术创新驱动新能源产业发展具有重大意义。[方法/过程]基于INNOJOY专利数据库，选取了燃料电池作为研究对象，采用主客观赋权方法与Cox比例风险回归模型等探究了技术锁定视角下的专利价值的影响因素。[结果/结论]结果表明：（1）技术锁定对专利价值的抑制作用显著；（2）引证数、被引证数与同族数均对专利价值的促进作用显著，权利要求数对专利价值的抑制作用显著，而IPC分类数对专利价值不具有显著效应。在丰富了专利价值研究的同时，为我国突破“技术锁定”，进而实现专利强国的目标提供相应建议。     

Claiming more: the Increased Voluminosity of Patent Applications and its Determinants

The size of patent applications has doubled over the past two decades, resulting in a dramatic surge in the workload of patent offices all over the world and serious concerns over patent quality standards. The current paper investigates the sources of this inflation in claims and pages for EPO applications. Four hypotheses are quantitatively examined: the diffusion of national drafting practices, the complexity of research activities, the emergence of new sectors, and filing strategies. The results validate the four hypotheses. They reveal major differences across countries in patent drafting styles, especially between Civil and Common Law countries, the latter being characterized by much larger patents. Second, the success of the PCT route is leading to the harmonizing of drafting styles worldwide on the US model. This paper therefore challenges the commonly accepted idea that more claims reflect a broader scope of protection by showing that the size of patents is partly due to institutional changes in the system.     

Partisan patent examiners? Exploring the link between the political ideology of patent examiners and patent office outcomes

Patents are key strategic resources which enable firms to appropriate innovation returns and prevent rival imitation. Patent examiners – individuals who may be subject to various sources of bias – play a central role in determining which inventions are awarded patent rights. Using a novel dataset, we explore if one increasingly prevalent source of bias – political ideology – manifests in examiner decision-making. Reassuringly, our analysis suggests that the political ideology of patent examiners is largely unrelated to patent office outcomes. However, we do find evidence suggesting politically active conservative-leaning examiners are more likely to grant patents relative to politically active liberal-leaning examiners, but only for patent applications where there is ambiguity regarding what constitutes patentable subject matter and hence examiners have greater discretion.     

基于引用时序特征的唤醒专利识别研究

唤醒专利是特殊类型的专利,由于技术内涵的超前性,在生命周期的早期阶段,处于罕有引用的休眠状态;在经历多年的沉寂后,随着技术发展和市场变化,最终受到关注并获得高引用而被唤醒;作为大器晚成的专利类型,唤醒专利尚未受到足够重视,亟待开展深入的研究工作。选取无线通信网络领域的专利作为研究样本,基于专利引用的时序特征分析,研究构建唤醒专利的识别方法;运用该识别方法筛选唤醒专利,剖析其典型特征,研究提出利用唤醒专利特征,分析和监测相关技术的发展趋势。     

面向专利预警的专利申请关键特征研究

近年来,专利陷阱及后续的专利诉讼对技术创新的影响日益凸显,应对这一态势的重要手段是专利预警。专利申请书是最早公开的专利文献,以此为突破口,对申请书的特征字段进行分析,构建申请特征与专利诉讼的回归模型;研究表明,权利要求数、引用专利数和技术宽度与专利诉讼发生概率有显著的正向关系,是与专利诉讼密切相关的关键特征。因此,针对目标技术领域的相关专利,可以此回归模型为定量分析工具,筛选出易引发诉讼的高风险专利,从而利用最早公开的申请信息开展专利预警。     

直辖市“双一流”高校专利合作与知识流动研究

考察我国直辖市"双一流"高校的专利合作网络演化,为提升直辖市的科技创新合作效率,提升科技创新能力和城市创新综合竞争力,为技术创新主体选择技术合作伙伴、探究地区间、高校间知识流动提供经验、启示。本文运用合作强度Salton指数、专利引用、绝对合作频次等,以Patentics和国家知识产权局专利数据库为工具,获取直辖市"双一流"高校合作专利数据,构建高校间的专利合作矩阵,采用合作网络可视化分析,梳理直辖市"双一流"高校专利合作网络,揭示网络环境下高校科技创新和知识流动的特征及趋势,给出提升高校专利合作的建议。结果表明:直辖市"双一流"高校校际专利合作的强同城倾向,清华大学、北京大学、复旦大学是京沪两地的专利合作核心高校。清华大学、上海交通大学、天津大学专利申请量居前三,清华大学、上海交通大学的专利被引量居前,清华大学、上海交通大学、天津大学为专利合作的核心高校,对知识流动影响深刻。不足之处在于专利只能部分反映高校间的技术创新合作,合作申请只是技术合作的一部分,还包括科技论文合作和成果转化。     

Big Data Analytics for Venture Capital Application：Towards Innovation Performance Improvement

By using the panel date of Chinese enterprises, this paper analyzes the influence of venture capital on innovation performance. In this paper, the number of patent application and the patent quality(invention patent applications, number of effective patents, IPC number of international patent classification, and patent claims) are used to measure the innovation performance of enterprises, and the regression results show that the innovation performance is significantly promoted by the venture capital; for industries with higher dependence on external financing and high technology intensity and areas with better protection of property rights, venture capital promotes innovation performance more significantly. In this paper, it further distinguishes the characteristics of venture capital institutions, and finds that the promotion effect of non-state-owned venture capital on innovation performance is significantly greater than that of state-owned venture capital; the venture capital institutions with high reputation and high network capital play a more significant role in promoting innovation performance.