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.

Does Productive Mean Active? The Behavior of Occasional and Serial Academic Inventors in Patenting Processes

Previous literature has attributed differences in individuals’ inventive productivity to a range of environmental, organizational and individual traits. However, the behavior of individuals with different inventive productivity has not been empirically explored in detail. Based on interviews with twenty Swedish academic inventors of diverse patenting experience, this paper analyses how serial and occasional inventors acted in patent initiation, patent application and subsequent patent management for specific inventions. Two modes of behavior are identified: passive and active. Individuals’ inventive productivity was not aligned with behavioral mode, with both modes of behavior exhibited by occasional as well as serial academic inventors. Individual academic inventors also varied in mode of behavior across different patent processes. These findings suggest that commonly used volume-based classifications of academic inventors obscure potentially relevant behavioral differences. This insight has implications for contemporary policy and organizational practice. It also highlights the need for further investigation of when academic inventors assume an active or passive mode of behavior in processes of academic commercialization.

Análise das Políticas Públicas Voltadas para Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação no Brasil e em Minas Gerais

The aim of this study was to analyze national and state of Minas Gerais public policies aimed at Science, Technology and Innovation (CT&I), as well as their impacts on the generation of patents. For this, a qualitative, descriptive and longitudinal research was carried out, covering the period from 2000 to 2018. The results show that Brazil needs to improve its position in the ranking of the Global Innovation Index; national expenditures are below the target set in the National Science and Technology Strategy; business expenditures represent a smaller share of investments made; there is an expressive participation of States in the provision of public resources for ST&I, although it does not occur equally. The state of Minas Gerais gradually increased investment in the area over the period analyzed, standing out in relation to the others with regard to spending on R&D and filing of patents with the INPI. Keywords: Brazil; patent management; state of Minas Gerais; public policy.

Applying Quantile Regression to Assess the Relationship between R&D, Technology Import and Patent Performance in Taiwan

Electronics companies are facing global economic and trade competition. As patents can form an endowment shield that protects the development of corporate capabilities, companies are actively increasing their number of patents and attaching importance to technological research and development and patent management to achieve differentiated strategic effects. As such, patent layout and research and development (R&D) investment have become important strategic weapons for Taiwanese manufacturers, with which to enter the international market or compete among enterprises. This study first utilized the principal components analysis method to define patents in terms of the number of patents and the times patents are cited, with R&D defined in terms of expenditure and intensity. Furthermore, this study used a quantile regression model to visualize the relationship between R&D, technological imports, and patent performance in Taiwanese listed electronics companies. The empirical results show that technological imports in the second time-lag period require patents, while the effect on patents varies alongside industry characteristics. In addition, the empirical results found that the total assets, number of employees, and number of patent inventors are also factors that significantly affect patents. This research proposes that Taiwan’s listed electronics companies should expand their scale, increase their economic efficiency, maximize their resources, increase their patents, enhance their corporate value, boost their investor confidence, and improve their industry competitiveness.

Patent management and the globalization of firms: the case of Siemens (1890–1945)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss how multinational enterprises have historically managed global patenting and to what extent the localization of patent management has supported the expansion of these enterprises. This study focuses on the electric appliance industry (one of the first industries to see the emergence of global companies) and consider the case of Siemens, a German multinational company, comparing it to General Electric (GE), an American company. Design/methodology/approach The work adopts a global business history approach. Taking GE’s global patent-management model, described by Nishimura (2004, 2009, 2016), as the benchmark, this study analyzed Siemens’ worldwide control of its intellectual property rights between 1890 and Second World War, using German, Japanese and American primary sources. Findings Patent management is a common means for firms to globalize and transfer technology internationally, but it can take various forms. While GE transferred patent management to its foreign subsidiaries (a process known as localization), Siemens kept worldwide patent management at its headquarters – except in Japan, where in time it transferred this activity to a joint venture. The transfer of production called for localization of patent management while focusing on exporting to other markets made it possible to keep patent management at headquarters. Originality/value Patents are usually a source for quantitative surveys. This paper uses them to discuss how multinational companies manage property rights globally. It is the first paper to address this issue by comparing two major actors in a similar industry.