Innovation and Patenting within Containerized Liner Shipping

Increasingly, in many industries, companies commercialize their technology and innovations through patenting to gain an edge over competition. Within the maritime sector, while literature on innovation is expanding, issues related to the importance of intangible assets, such as patenting, for the participant firms of the industry remain unaddressed. Utilizing innovational frameworks and patent data withdrawn from European Patent Organization’s (EPO’s) database, the aim of this paper is to investigate the innovative level, in terms of patents granted, of incumbent market actors in liner shipping. Apart from patent counts, this exercise sheds light on the areas to which these patents apply, providing a classification while also investigating additional attributes which relate to patent citations, investors and applicants. Although results indicate a varying degree of utilization of the patenting system amongst liner carriers, they nonetheless affirm to some extent that knowledge creation is a valuable tool in the arsenal of some liner carriers, and that patenting is one of the various means utilized to enhance their market position and achieve a sustained competitive advantage. In addition, findings suggest that liner carriers’ innovative efforts have, based on the forward citations received, some significance, while they focus primarily the development of patented technologies which enhance the operational efficiency of their vessels. In this respect, the investigation undertaken sheds some light and provides a novel perspective on understanding the behaviour and innovative propensity of liner shipping companies.

Patent management: the prominent role of strategy and organization

PurposeThe purpose of this article is twofold; to verify the existence of different profiles of firms based on the level of sophistication of their patent management core processes and to test the impact of the interplay between two patent management supporting dimensions, namely patent strategy and organization for patenting, on the level of sophistication of patent management core processes.Design/methodology/approachThe method consists of a survey study, collecting data from a set of European patent management professionals. These data are analyzed with factor analysis, cluster analysis and regression analysis to test several hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that patent strategy positively and significantly impacts patent management sophistication, and that the patent organization positively moderates this relationship. In other words, a patent strategy, supported by a well-developed patent organization and culture, will positively influence the processes of managing a firm's patent portfolio.Originality/valueThis study is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first one to provide quantitative evidence that supports the notion that it is important to take a strategic and organizational perspective of patent management.

Energy, Economic and Environmental Assessment of Thermal Barrier Application in Building Envelope Structures

Thermal engineering requirements for building structures are becoming more and more strict. Thermal barriers (TBs) are energy-active elements integrated into the building structure in which a heat transfer medium (water or air) flows. A survey of the scientific literature on the subject points to the fact that this is a very topical and promising area of research and, so far, most studies on TBs are based on calculations, computer simulations and experimental measurements. Few studies have focused on the economic and environmental aspects of TB use. Following the research results presented by authors from all over the world, as well as our contributions in this scientific field that are described in a European patent, three utility models and scientific articles, in this study we have focused on the evaluation of the TB in terms of energy performance, economic efficiency and environmental friendliness by comparing the use of a classical envelope wall with the required thickness of thermal insulation meeting the normative requirements for thermal resistance R ((m2K)/W) and a perimeter wall with an integrated TB significantly eliminating the thermal insulation thickness. We evaluate the use of the thermal barrier using: economic indicator one, where we compare the cost of heat delivered to the TB in a structure with significantly eliminated thermal insulation and the saved cost of thermal insulation at the standard thickness; economic indicator two, where we compare the cost of heat delivered to the TB in a structure with significantly eliminated thermal insulation with the potential gain from the sale of the useful area of the building gained compared to the area at the normative thickness of thermal insulation; and economic indicator three, where we compare the cost of heat delivered to the TB in a structure with significantly eliminated thermal insulation with the cost of grey energy at the normative thickness of thermal insulation. Based on a parametric study based on theoretical assumptions, it can be concluded that the thermal barrier shows a very promising and efficient solution in terms of the evaluation of economic indicators one to three, which are even more significant if we use heat for the TB from renewable energy sources (RES) or waste heat.

What do patents tell us about microalgae in agriculture?

Microalgae have been used widely as a biological source for several industries, such as biofuel, pharmaceutical and food. Recently, the agricultural industry has also began using microalgae as an alternative source for sustainable products to replace agrochemicals. Due to the lack of scientific articles in this research area, the objective of this study was to search for applications of microalgae and to characterize its use in agriculture using the patent documents available in three patent databases, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), European Patent Office (EPO) and Brazilian Institute of Industrial Property (INPI). The search was carried out using the keyword “microalgae” and applying the filter for International Patent Classification (IPC) code “A01N” which corresponds to patents related to agriculture and cultivation of microalgae. Our patent database search returned 669 documents and 132 patents were selected for the study based on their abstracts. The first patent was registered in 1982 and described the use of microalgae Chlorella extract as a plant growth promoter. After that, no patent was registered for 15 years. From 2005 to 2014, only seven patents were found. However, the scenario changed from 2015 when the number of patents increased mainly in the United States, China and Europe. The patent analysis showed several applications for microalgae in the agricultural sector, such as plant growth promotion, biofertilization, plant disease control, weed management, and post-harvest quality. This review confirmed the increasing interest in microalgae-derived products in agriculture and the value of using patent documents to assess innovative areas.

Comparative Analysis of Appeal Procedures in the European, American and Brazilian Patent Offices

The right to appeal exists as a response to the two main characteristics of every human being. The first refers to the attitude of not settling for adverse decisions, which leads people to seek instruments to remediate these decisions, while the second is the possibility that every human being has to make mistakes and the need to correct these mistakes in decision-making acts that may have been mistaken. Therefore, an appeal is an instrument that enables review of a decision by a higher authority to obtain its modification or revocation. In the patent system, appeals are used basically to reverse decisions of patent examiners during the examination procedure as, for example, the decision to reject a patent. Although all patent offices have procedures for appeal against first-instance decisions taken by these offices, there are significant differences as to how this procedure is conducted in each office. This chapter will study the laws and regulations, rules and procedures on appeals in two of the main patent offices in the world – the European Patent Office – EPO and the United States Patent and Trademark Office – USPTO, and in the Brazilian Patent Office – INPI, pointing out the main differences between them.

Exploring agricultural entrepreneurship and new technologies: academic and practitioners' views

PurposeThis paper investigates the relationship between agricultural entrepreneurship (AE) and new technologies using academic and practitioners' perspectives to understand how new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and augmented reality can promote agri-businesses.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a content and thematic analysis of 325 academic sources extracted from the Scopus database and 683 patents retrieved from the European Patent Office (EPO) dataset. Additionally, the research applies the Kruskal–Wallis test as a non-parametric test for evaluating differences in the main concepts discussed in the two sources.FindingsThe academic and practitioners' debate highlights a trading zone among the two streams. patents' analysis from the EPO reveals four main common themes as a new business that benefits from AI in weather predictions, new smart and intelligent ways to monitor crops, new businesses that use clouds to control plant's humidity. The analysis of Scopus's sources demonstrates theoretical approaches related to the technology acceptance model (TAM) and practical strategies in terms of entrepreneurial skills to support the agricultural sector. However, barriers among the two streams of sources exist in innovation management and scale-up entrepreneurial initiatives.Research limitations/implicationsRegarding implications, the authors aim to connect academic and practitioners' views by understanding the new potential innovation applications and the connected new research avenues. Limitations might arise from the sources used to develop our analysis.Originality/valueThe paper is novel because it investigates the issues arising from the relationship between AE and new technologies by examining original validated patents released by practitioners and approved by the EPO, rather than reviewing blogs or the financial press. This leads to a holistic understanding of the impact of tangible practices among agricultural entrepreneurs. The results support the view that new trading zones and case studies are needed to highlight and show the positive impact of technologies in this field. The authors argue that practitioners require scholars to reduce the ambiguity between AE and its expected results, leading to investments to boost new agricultural business ideas.

Trade Patterns and International Technology Spillovers: Theory and Evidence from Japanese and European Patent Citations

International diffusion of knowledge is important to both the speed of the world’s technology frontier expansion and income convergence across countries. For example, Eaton and Kortum (1996) estimate innovation and technology diffusion among 19 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries to test predictions from a quality ladders model of endogenous growth with patenting.

Technological prospection: the genus Mikania in therapeutic use

The genus Mikania (Asteraceae) comprises about 450 species of these, 203 are found in Brazil and present several chemical and biological activities. Considering the variety of species and their therapeutic properties, the present study aimed to perform technological prospecting of this genus, since this approach aims to contribute to technological, scientific and innovation research. For this purpose, the patent documents were analyzed, regarding the applicant countries, year of filing and the international classification of patents of the genus Mikania. The search was conducted in the databases World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), European Patent Office (EPO) and the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) in October 2020, using the descriptor “Mikania”; present in the title and/or abstract in addition, documents that included medicinal approaches were selected. Thus, taking into consideration the filing countries, Japan, Brazil and the United States led the patent deposits, with the first document filed in 1991 and the largest number of applications in the years 2000 and 2010. The data concerning the international patent classification are concentrated in subclass A61K, which deals with preparations for medical, dental or hygienic purposes. These results demonstrated the therapeutic and technological potential of the Mikania species and thus which can be evidenced the potential of this study.

Technologic Prospection of Bioactive Compounds in Umbu Pulp (Spondias Tuberosa Arruda)

The Spondias tuberosa arruda is a fairly integrated type and known in the Brazilian semiarid, being present in the food of the population that lives there. About 18 fruits are in the genus Spondias, and it is known that some of them, like umbu, have antioxidant potential and applicability in several areas. In order to evaluate this potential, it is important a detailed study of all possible applications. This study analyzed the survey results for the bioactive compounds (phenolic compounds and antioxidants) present in umbu pulp (Spondias tuberosa arruda) through patent applications. To perform the patent search was used the bases of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the database of the brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) and the European Patent Office (Espacenet). This prospect has contributed to the knowledge of researches already developed, especially in order to identify the work in the area of use, characterization, possible applications and potential umbu, focusing on the identification of bioactive compounds and how promising and necessary is a research in that area.