Publicação
The value of portuguese patents
| Resumo: | Patents are an essential indicator of a country’s innovation. Over the years, researchers have used patents to measure inventiveness. Global innovation now unfolds within transnational R&D networks: multicultural research teams form more easily, ownership frequently crosses borders, and knowledge routinely spills over national frontiers. These dynamics complicate the attribution of inventive output to any single country and demand a more nuanced assessment of patent value. Furthermore, a simple count of patents may not be a good indicator, as the propensity to patent varies considerably across sectors, and so does the value of the patent. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the quality of patents. It is easy to say but hard to do since extracting information from patents is complex, and different methods and metrics may yield conflicting results. Using data from the PATSTAT Online Autumn 2024 release, we analysed 24,707 patent applications filed between 1989 and 2019 by either Portuguese entities or involving at least one Portuguese inventor. Enlarging our search to any patent filed by any Portuguese owner and any patent with at least one Portuguese inventor allows us to uncover those transnational spillovers. Our analysis reveals that 1,650 patents were conceived entirely by Portuguese inventors but owned by foreign firms, while foreign firms owned an additional 4,012 patents in multicultural teams of inventors. We found a mix of national and international owners in 2001 patent applications, where 618 patents resulted solely from Portuguese inventors. The annual volume of Portuguese patenting has risen by 275% over the past three decades. Yet headline counts tell only part of the story. The composite value index for Portugal indicates a modest yet consistent upward trend in patent quality since the late 1980s. Based on the principal components analysis, we found that the factors contributing most to patent value are technological impact and radicalness, captured by the patent indicators of forward citations and radicalness. Multicultural collaboration, foreign ownership, and radical inventions are all positively and significantly associated with that trajectory. Across the sample, multicultural inventor teams and cross‑border ownership structures consistently deliver higher‑value patents. A Heckman selection model confirms that multicultural teams increase the probability of an application being granted and are associated with higher patent value. Additionally, foreign-owned patents have a higher value. Based on the results obtained, we present some policy recommendations to public decision-makers, who will ultimately develop new policies to support the growth of the national innovation system. Firms gain from these metrics, as they can accurately assess their intangible assets to make informed decisions in tech market transactions. |
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| Autores principais: | Carvalho, Paulo António da Cruz |
| Assunto: | Patent quality Radical innovation Inventors Principal component analysis Heckman two-step model Qualidade das patentes Inovação Radical Inventores Análise componente principal Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão O: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth::O3: Innovation • Research and Development • Technological Change • Intellectual Property Rights::O30: General O: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth::O3: Innovation • Research and Development • Technological Change • Intellectual Property Rights::O31: Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives O: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth::O3: Innovation • Research and Development • Technological Change • Intellectual Property Rights::O33: Technological Change: Choices and Consequences • Diffusion Processes O: Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth::O3: Innovation • Research and Development • Technological Change • Intellectual Property Rights::O34: Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital |
| Ano: | 2025 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | dissertação de mestrado |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade do Minho |
| Idioma: | português |
| Origem: | RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho |
| Resumo: | Patents are an essential indicator of a country’s innovation. Over the years, researchers have used patents to measure inventiveness. Global innovation now unfolds within transnational R&D networks: multicultural research teams form more easily, ownership frequently crosses borders, and knowledge routinely spills over national frontiers. These dynamics complicate the attribution of inventive output to any single country and demand a more nuanced assessment of patent value. Furthermore, a simple count of patents may not be a good indicator, as the propensity to patent varies considerably across sectors, and so does the value of the patent. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the quality of patents. It is easy to say but hard to do since extracting information from patents is complex, and different methods and metrics may yield conflicting results. Using data from the PATSTAT Online Autumn 2024 release, we analysed 24,707 patent applications filed between 1989 and 2019 by either Portuguese entities or involving at least one Portuguese inventor. Enlarging our search to any patent filed by any Portuguese owner and any patent with at least one Portuguese inventor allows us to uncover those transnational spillovers. Our analysis reveals that 1,650 patents were conceived entirely by Portuguese inventors but owned by foreign firms, while foreign firms owned an additional 4,012 patents in multicultural teams of inventors. We found a mix of national and international owners in 2001 patent applications, where 618 patents resulted solely from Portuguese inventors. The annual volume of Portuguese patenting has risen by 275% over the past three decades. Yet headline counts tell only part of the story. The composite value index for Portugal indicates a modest yet consistent upward trend in patent quality since the late 1980s. Based on the principal components analysis, we found that the factors contributing most to patent value are technological impact and radicalness, captured by the patent indicators of forward citations and radicalness. Multicultural collaboration, foreign ownership, and radical inventions are all positively and significantly associated with that trajectory. Across the sample, multicultural inventor teams and cross‑border ownership structures consistently deliver higher‑value patents. A Heckman selection model confirms that multicultural teams increase the probability of an application being granted and are associated with higher patent value. Additionally, foreign-owned patents have a higher value. Based on the results obtained, we present some policy recommendations to public decision-makers, who will ultimately develop new policies to support the growth of the national innovation system. Firms gain from these metrics, as they can accurately assess their intangible assets to make informed decisions in tech market transactions. |
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