Worldwide Nanotechnology Development:
A Comparative Study of
USPTO, EPO, and JPO Patents
Artificial Intelligence Lab
Department of Management Information Systems
University of Arizona
May 2006
Outline
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Introduction
Background and Research Objectives
Research Design
Dataset
Basic Bibliographic Analysis
Content Map Analysis
Citation Network Analysis
Conclusions
2
Introduction
• Nanotechnology
–
–
–
–
A fundamental technology.
Critical for a nation’s technological competence.
Revolutionizes a wide range of application domains.
Its R&D status attracts various communities’ interest.
• Patent analysis has been widely used to assess a
field’s research and development status.
– (Huang et al., 2003a, Huang et al., 2004 ) studied the
longitudinal patent publications of different countries,
institutions, and technology fields in the NSE field.
– (Huang et al., 2005) studied the impact of National Science
Foundation’s funding on NSE patents.
3
Our Research
• Our research focuses on the NSE field and is a comparative
study of NSE patents filed in USPTO, EPO, and JPO.
– The NSE research in German, P. R. China, South Korea, and
France are also very active. Their patent offices documented many
NSE patents (mostly in their own language). But in this research
we focus on the patents documented in EPO and JPO, which have
been translated into English.
• We use basic bibliographic analysis, content map analysis, and
citation network analysis techniques.
4
Patent Offices in the World
• There are several governmental (e.g., USPTO) or
intergovernmental (e.g., EPO) patent offices which
control the granting of patents in the world.
• USPTO, EPO and JPO issue nearly 90 percent of
the world’s patents (Kowalski et al., 2003).
– In the NSE field, the United States, the European group,
and Japan dominate the patent publication in the USPTO
filed patents (Huang et al., 2003a).
• The inventors may file their patents in different patent
offices.
5
Background
• USPTO Patents
– US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO): more than 6.5 million
patents with 3,500 to 4,000 newly granted patents each week.
– NSE patents represent the fastest growing technology field in the
USPTO patent database since the1990s (Huang et al., 2003a).
• EPO Patents
– European Patent Office (EPO): more than 1.5 million patents with
more than 1,000 newly granted patents each week.
– European Patent Office provides an online patent search system,
esp@cenet, which contains the structured patent information from
EPO, JPO, USPTO, and other countries’ patent offices.
• JPO Patents
– Japan Patent Office (JPO): more than 1.7 million patents with
2,000 to 3,000 newly granted patents each week.
6
Utilizing Different Patent Offices’ Repositories
• To obtain a comprehensive understanding of a
technology area’s development, it is necessary to
study the patents filed in different patent offices’
repositories.
7
Research Objectives
• Assess the NSE development status
represented by USPTO, EPO, and JPO
patents.
• Compare and contrast the differences
in the NSE patents in the three
repositories.
8
Research Design
We developed a framework to assess the R&D status of the NSE field based on
the patents in the three repositories: USPTO, EPO, and JPO.
Data acquisition
USPTO dataset
Collected by
keywords
Patent
USPTO
database
Research status analysis
Patent publication
Number of patents
Patent importance/
strength of a repository
Average number
of cites
Topic coverage
Content map
Knowledge diffusion
Citation Network
EPO+JPO patent
EPO dataset
Collected by
keywords
Patent
status
JPO
database
parsing
EPO
database
Patent status
checking
JPO dataset
9
Research Design
• The framework contains three steps:
– Data acquisition
• Retrieve patents from the three repositories
– Patent parsing
• Parse the free-text data to structured data
– Research status analysis
10
Data Acquisition
• Retrieve the patents from the three repositories
– A list of keywords can be used to search for patents related to a
domain from the three repositories.
– USPTO
• USPTO provides online full-text access for patents issued since 1976.
• The patents can be searched using almost all the data fields of a
patent.
– EPO
• esp@cenet provides online title-abstract access to EPO patents
issued since 1978.
• The patents can be searched based on title, abstract, and some of the
bibliographic data.
– JPO
• Patent Abstracts of Japan (PAJ) is the official patent database of JPO,
which contains the patents issued since 1976.
• The PAJ database is difficult to spider. But its patents and patent
applications can be searched from esp@cenet.
• Need to use the PAJ database to differentiate patents from patent
applications.
11
Research Status Analysis
•
•
We assess a field’s research status using the following indicators.
Patent publication
–
–
–
–
•
Number of patents by country in each year
Number of patents by country group in each year
Number of patents by assignee in each year
Number of patents by technology field in each year
Patent importance / strength
– Average number of cites by country
– Average number of cites by assignee
– Average number of cites by technology field
•
Topic coverage
– Content map analysis
•
Knowledge diffusion
– Country citation network analysis
– Institution citation network analysis
– Technology field network analysis
12
Analysis Performed
USPTO
Patent publication
Number of patents by country in each year
Number of patents by country group in each year
Number of patents by assignee in each year
Number of patents by technology field in each year
Patent importance / strength of a repository
Average number of cites by country
Average number of cites by assignee
Average number of cites by technology field
Topic coverage
Content map analysis
Knowledge diffusion
Country citation network analysis
Institution citation network analysis
Technology field network analysis
EPO JPO
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13
Data: USPTO Patents
• USPTO NSE patent collection
– Used an NSE keyword list to search patent title,
abstract, and claim (“title-claims” search) in
USPTO database (Huang et al., 2003).
– 13,469 patents were collected.
– Submitted by 4,807 assignees, 19,716 inventors
and 57 countries.
14
Data: USPTO Patents (cont.)
• Top 20 NSE assignees and countries based on “titleclaims” search of patents published from 1976 to 2004
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Assignee Name
International Business Machines Corporation
Xerox Corporation
The Regents of the University of California
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
Micron Technology, Inc.
Eastman Kodak Company
General Electric Company
Motorola, Inc.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
The United States of America as represented by
the Secretary of the Navy
NEC Corporation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
L'Oreal
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.
Texas Instruments, Incorporated
Intel Corporation
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
PPG Industries, Inc.
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Sandia Corporation
Number of Average
Patents
Patent Age
423
6.56
226
5.90
201
3.98
195
6.64
190
1.98
166
6.97
150
7.76
149
5.28
147
1.79
138
6.19
116
105
97
82
79
79
68
66
66
61
4.75
4.77
5.21
5.70
6.69
2.05
10.26
13.11
3.86
3.32
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Assignee Country
United States
Japan
France
Germany
Canada
Republic of Korea
China (Taiwan)
United Kingdom
Netherlands
Switzerland
Australia
Israel
Italy
Belgium
Sweden
Singapore
Ireland
Denmark
India
Finland
Number of
Patents
9,018
1,113
482
463
204
194
186
139
114
102
64
58
57
56
45
27
26
22
20
15
15
Data: EPO Patents
• EPO NSE patent collection
– Used an NSE keyword list to search patent title
and abstract (“title-abstract” search) in
esp@cenet.
– 2,597 EPO patents were collected.
– Submitted by 1,393 assignees, 5,905 inventors
and 44 countries.
16
Data: EPO Patents (cont.)
• Top 20 NSE assignees and countries based on “titleabstract” search of patents published from 1979 to 2004
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Assignee Name
OREAL
IBM
EASTMAN KODAK CO
ROHM & HAAS
SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD
JAPAN SCIENCE & TECH CORP
BASF AG
MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC IND CO LTD
ALLIED SIGNAL INC
LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC
BAYER AG
UNIV CALIFORNIA
JAPAN SCIENCE & TECH AGENCY
XEROX CORP
INST NEUE MAT GEMEIN GMBH
CENTRE NAT RECH SCIENT
HEWLETT PACKARD CO
COMMISSARIAT ENERGIE ATOMIQUE
ILJIN NANOTECH CO LTD
SAMSUNG SDI CO LTD
Number of Average
Patents
Patent Age
50
47
41
41
29
28
26
24
21
21
20
20
20
18
18
18
18
18
17
17
5.16
12.36
4.41
3.41
0.69
2.71
6.58
7.67
4.33
3.24
5.50
4.60
0.00
5.83
5.72
4.44
3.50
3.06
3.47
2.24
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Assignee Country
United States
Japan
Germany
France
Republic of Korea
United Kingdom
Switzerland
Netherlands
Italy
Belgium
Canada
Ireland
Israel
Sweden
Spain
Australia
Austria
Russia
China
India
OREAL=L’OREAL (a French cosmetic composition company)
Number of
Patents
1,109
407
404
265
121
101
96
55
48
44
34
29
26
26
24
16
15
15
11
10
17
Data: JPO Patents
• JPO patent collection
– Used an NSE keyword list to search patent title
and abstract (“title-abstract” search) in
esp@cenet, which contains both JPO patent
applications and JPO registered patents.
– The patent application ID was used to retrieve the
patent status from the JPO database.
– 1,027 JPO registered patents were collected.
– Submitted by 419 assignees, 1,960 inventors.
18
Data: JPO Patents (cont.)
• Top 20 NSE assignees based on “title-abstract” search of
patents published from 1976 to 2004
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Assignee Name
NIPPON ELECTRIC CO
JAPAN SCIENCE & TECH CORP
MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC IND CO LTD
AGENCY IND SCIENCE TECHN
TOKYO SHIBAURA ELECTRIC CO
SONY CORP
CANON KK
IBM
SEIKO INSTR INC
HITACHI LTD
NAT INST FOR MATERIALS SCIENCE
SHARP KK
NAT INST OF ADV IND & TECHNOL
JAPAN RES DEV CORP
JEOL LTD
OREAL
NIPPON TELEGRAPH & TELEPHONE
FUJITSU LTD
HITACHI METALS LTD
DAIKEN KAGAKU KOGYO KK
Number of Average
Patents
Patent Age
104
7.15
49
2.35
43
9.07
43
6.21
31
5.61
30
8.10
29
8.76
27
8.56
26
8.35
25
9.88
25
1.00
24
4.79
24
1.25
22
9.00
21
9.19
20
6.00
19
7.32
13
9.31
13
7.54
11
3.36
19
Data: USPTO, EPO, and JPO Patents
NSE Patents (1976-2004)
10,000
USPTO
EPO
JPO
Number of Patents
1,000
100
10
Year
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1
Year
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
NSE Patents
USPTO EPO JPO
291
0
0
363
0
0
372
0
0
272
2
1
386
1
11
486
1
16
396
7
19
466
4
27
535
6
27
607
3
23
663
9
31
794
1
38
822
12
64
1,059
16
72
1,113
22
53
1,295
38
37
1,445
56
29
1,632
50
44
1,402
79
69
1,853
73
74
1,866
74
74
2,714
62
95
3,430
57
113
3,710
80
130
3,985
86
147
4,656
78
236
5,104
83
310
5,654
78
365
5,706
50
480
• The numbers of NSE patents published in USPTO and EPO continually increase.
• After 1993, the number of NSE patents published in JPO becomes stable.
(USPTO by “title-claims” search; EPO and JPO by “title-abstract” search)
20
Analysis
USPTO
Patent publication
Number of patents by country in each year
Number of patents by country group in each year
Number of patents by assignee in each year
Number of patents by technology field in each year
Patent importance / strength of a repository
Average number of cites by country
Average number of cites by assignee
Average number of cites by technology field
Topic coverage
Content map analysis
Knowledge diffusion
Country citation network analysis
Institution citation network analysis
Technology field network analysis
EPO JPO
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21
USPTO: Country
Basic Analysis- USPTO Patents by Country
•
Top 20 NSE assignee countries in USPTO (“title-claims” search) and their patents by
year, 1976-2004
1,400
Top 20 Assignee Countries by Year
United States
Japan
France
1,200
• The United States filed
more NSE patents than other
countries in the USPTO
database.
Germany
Republic of Korea
China (Taiwan)
Canada
United Kingdom
800
Netherlands
Switzerland
600
Australia
Israel
Belgium
400
Italy
Sweden
200
Singapore
Ireland
0
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Number of Patents
1,000
India
Year
China
Denmark
22
USPTO: Country
Basic Analysis- USPTO Patents by Country
Top 20 NSE assignee countries (without U.S.) in USPTO (“title-claims” search) and
their patents by year, 1976-2004
Top 20 Assignee Countries (without U.S.) by Year
200
Japan
• There is an increasing trend
of the number of NSE patents
published by most countries.
France
Germany
180
Republic of Korea
160
China (Taiwan)
Canada
140
• Between 2002 and 2004,
the number of NSE patents
published by France
experienced a decrease.
United Kingdom
Netherlands
120
Switzerland
100
Australia
Israel
80
Belgium
Italy
60
Sweden
40
Singapore
Ireland
20
India
0
Denmark
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Number of Patents
•
Year
China
23
EPO: Country
Basic Analysis- EPO Patents by Country
•
Top 20 NSE assignee countries in EPO (“title-abstract” search) and their patents by
year, 1979-2004
TOP 20 Assignee Countries by Year
250
United States
Japan
Germany
France
South Korea
United Kingdom
Switzerland
Netherlands
150
• After 2000, the US
and Japan NSE
patents experienced a
rapid growth in the
EPO database.
Italy
Belgium
Canada
100
Ireland
Israel
Sweden
Spain
50
Australia
Austria
0
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Number of Patents
200
• The United States
filed more NSE patents
than other countries in
the EPO database.
Year
Russia
China
India
24
EPO: Country
Basic Analysis- EPO Patents by Country
Top 20 NSE assignee countries (without U.S.) in EPO (“title-abstract” search) and their
patents by year, 1979-2004
TOP 20 Assignee Countries (without U.S.) by Year
Japan
100
Germany
90
France
South Korea
80
United Kingdom
Switzerland
70
Netherlands
60
Italy
Belgium
50
Canada
Ireland
40
Israel
Sweden
30
Spain
20
Australia
Austria
10
Russia
China
0
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Number of Patents
•
Year
India
25
USPTO: Country Group
Basic Analysis- USPTO Patents by Country Group
•
Assignee country group analysis by year, 1976-2004 (“title-claims” search)
USPTO Country Groups (1976-2004)
1,400
United States
Japan
European Group
1,200
Others
Number of Patents
1,000
800
600
400
200
•
•
2004
2002
2003
2000
2001
1998
1999
1996
1997
1994
1995
1992
1993
1990
Year
1991
1988
1989
1986
1987
1984
1985
1982
1983
1980
1981
1978
1979
1976
1977
0
Year
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Total
United
States
30
53
58
26
50
61
51
73
93
97
100
132
124
162
164
204
256
244
227
302
325
393
486
548
612
818
926
1,103
1,300
9,018
European
Group
3
3
9
7
9
10
13
15
8
16
11
11
10
28
28
28
26
20
28
33
40
73
103
96
122
147
168
182
203
1,450
Japan Others
3
6
2
3
3
3
2
3
3
0
1
3
1
1
1
4
4
0
2
1
6
1
12
0
10
6
21
4
17
7
14
9
31
19
36
18
51
10
57
36
52
27
62
25
65
56
75
85
81
68
84
112
102
144
143
207
172
257
1,113
1,115
The European Group, Japan, and the Others Group, which contains all the
other countries, have similar numbers of NSE patents in USPTO database.
26
The US has many more NSE patents than the other three groups in USPTO.
EPO: Country Group
Basic Analysis- EPO Patents by Country Group
•
Assignee country group analysis by year, 1979-2004 (“title-abstract” search)
EPO Country Groups (1979-2004)
250
United States
European Group
Japan
Number of Patents
200
Others
150
100
50
Year
•
•
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984
1983
1982
1981
1980
1979
0
Year
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
United
States
0
5
4
7
11
10
17
17
22
31
29
23
20
8
15
31
30
30
46
41
53
57
100
133
163
200
European
Group
Japan Others
1
0
0
4
2
0
9
0
0
11
2
0
11
2
1
11
2
1
7
0
0
7
3
1
14
1
0
20
2
1
30
2
7
14
3
17
9
2
9
10
1
11
1
16
14
2
29
8
5
27
16
6
25
22
3
47
14
13
46
18
10
40
35
20
57
16
36
86
23
38
118
38
54
123
62
77
154
88
The US and the European Group have similar numbers of NSE patents in the
EPO database.
27
The Others Group and Japan have similar numbers of NSE patents in EPO.
USPTO: Assignee
Basic Analysis- USPTO Patents by Assignee
Top 10 NSE assignees in USPTO (“title-claims” search) and their patents by year,
1976-2004
Top 10 USPTO Assignees
• All the top assignees are
US companies/institutions.
IBM
60
Xerox Corporation
• IBM and Xerox were
issued the greatest number
of patents.
50
The Regents of the
University of California
Minnesota Mining and
Manufacturing Company
40
• The top 10 NSE
assignees’ patents
experienced a steady
increase in these years.
Micron Technology, Inc.
30
Eastman Kodak Company
20
General Electric Company
Motorola, Inc.
10
Advanced Micro Devices,
Inc.
0
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Number of Patents
•
Year
The United States of
America as represented by
the Secretary of the Navy
28
EPO: Assignee
Basic Analysis- EPO Patents by Assignee
•
Top 10 NSE assignees in EPO (“title-abstract” search) and their patents by year,
1979-2004
• OREAL is a French
cosmetic composition
company.
Top 10 EPO Assignees
18
OREAL
16
IBM
14
ROHM & HAAS
EASTMAN KODAK CO
10
SAMSUNG
ELECTRONICS CO LTD
8
BASF AG
Year
2004
2002
2003
2001
1999
2000
1998
1996
1997
1995
1993
1994
1992
1991
ALLIED SIGNAL INC
1989
1990
0
1988
LUCENT
TECHNOLOGIES INC
1986
1987
2
1985
MATSUSHITA
ELECTRIC IND CO LTD
1983
1984
4
1982
JAPAN SCIENCE &
TECH CORP
1980
1981
6
1979
Number of Patents
12
• ROHM & HAAS is a
special material company.
Samsung’s patents
steadily increased after
2001.
• The top 10 assignees
consisted of companies/
institutions from the US,
Korea, Japan, etc.
• Even the top 10
assignees did not file a lot
of patents in the EPO
database.
29
JPO: Assignee
Basic Analysis- JPO Patents by Assignee
Top 10 NSE assignees in JPO (“title-abstract” search) and their patents by year,
1976-2004
•Most of the top assignees
were Japanese companies/
institutions.
Top 10 JPO Assignees
20
18
NIPPON ELECTRIC CO
16
JAPAN SCIENCE &
TECH CORP
14
MATSUSHITA
ELECTRIC IND CO LTD
12
AGENCY IND
SCIENCE TECHN
SONY CORP
10
CANON KK
8
TOKYO SHIBAURA
ELECTRIC CO
6
IBM
SEIKO INSTR INC
4
HITACHI LTD
2
0
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Number of Patents
•
Year
30
USPTO: Technology Field
Basic Analysis- USPTO Technology Fields
•
Top 10 technology fields according to the number of patents published
between 1976 and 2004 based on US Class (“title-claims” search)
Field Class
428
257
438
427
424
435
250
430
436
514
Field Name
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Active solid-state devices (e.g., transistors, solid-state diodes)
Semiconductor device manufacturing: process
Coating processes
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
Radiant energy
Radiation imagery chemistry: process,composition, or product thereof
Chemistry: analytical and immunological testing
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Number of Patents
5,819
4,957
4,401
4,273
3,654
3,279
2,600
2,463
2,062
2,011
31
USPTO: Technology Field
Basic Analysis- USPTO Technology Fields
Top 10 US classification technology fields by year (1976-2004) (“titleclaims” search)
• The numbers of
patents in the top 10
technology fields have
been increasing.
Top 10 USPTO Technology Fields (USPC)
1,200
1,000
428
800
257
438
427
600
424
435
250
400
430
436
200
5114
• Some technology
fields, such as “257:
Active solid-state
devices (e.g.,
transistors, solid-state
diodes),” “438:
Semiconductor device
manufacturing:
process,” “428: Stock
material or
miscellaneous
articles,” and “427:
Coating processes,”
experienced a
significant growth
since 1997
0
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Number of Patents
•
Year
32
EPO: Technology Field
Basic Analysis- EPO Technology Fields
•
Top 10 technology fields according to the number of patents published
between 1979 and 2004 (“title-abstract” search)
Field Class
A61K
H01L
G01N
C01B
C08K
B01J
H01J
C08L
G01B
B01D
Field Name
Number of Patents
348
PREPARATIONS FOR MEDICAL, DENTAL, OR TOILET PURPOSES
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT
280
OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING
233
THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
223
NON-METALLIC ELEMENTS; COMPOUNDS THEREOF
USE OF INORGANIC OR NON-MACROMOLECULAR ORGANIC
152
SUBSTANCES AS COMPOUNDING INGREDIENTS
CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS, COLLOID
143
CHEMISTRY; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS
123
ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS
90
COMPOSITIONS OF MACROMOLECULAR COMPOUNDS
MEASURING LENGTH, THICKNESS, OR SIMILAR LINEAR
DIMENSIONS; MEASURING ANGLES; MEASURING AREAS;
88
MEASURING IRREGULARITIES OF SURFACES OR CONTOURS
88
SEPARATION
33
EPO: Technology Field
Basic Analysis- EPO Technology Fields
•
Top 10 technology fields by year (1979-2004) (“title-abstract” search)
• EPO and USPO have
the same top 3
technology fields (in IPC
classification).
Top 10 EPO Technology Fields (IPC)
70
60
A61K
H01L
G01N
40
C01B
C08K
B01J
30
H01J
C08L
20
G01B
B01D
10
Year
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984
1983
1982
1981
1980
0
1979
Number of Patents
50
•The technology fields
A61K: Preparations for
medical, dental, or toilet
purposes,” “H01L:
Semiconductor devices;
electric solid state
devices,” “C01B: Nonmetallic elements;
compounds thereof,”
“C08K: Use of inorganic
or non-macromolecular
organic substances as
compounding
ingredients,” and
“B01J:Chemical or
physical processes, e.g.
catalysis, colloid
chemistry; their relevant
apparatus” all
experienced a steady
increase in recent years.
34
JPO: Technology Field
Basic Analysis- JPO Technology Fields
•
Top 10 technology fields according to the number of patents published
between 1976 and 2004 (“title-abstract” search)
Field Class
H01L
C01B
H01J
G01N
G01B
B01J
H01S
B82B
C23C
A61K
Field Name
Number of Patents
SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT
214
OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
153
NON-METALLIC ELEMENTS; COMPOUNDS THEREOF
138
ELECTRIC DISCHARGE TUBES OR DISCHARGE LAMPS
INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING
123
THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
MEASURING LENGTH, THICKNESS, OR SIMILAR LINEAR
DIMENSIONS; MEASURING ANGLES; MEASURING AREAS;
121
MEASURING IRREGULARITIES OF SURFACES OR CONTOURS
CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS, COLLOID
80
CHEMISTRY; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS
58
DEVICES USING STIMULATED EMISSION
NANO-STRUCTURES; MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT
51
THEREOF<EDT>7</EDT>
COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH
METALLIC MATERIAL; SURFACE TREATMENT OF METALLIC
MATERIAL BY DIFFUSION INTO THE SURFACE, BY CHEMICAL
CONVERSION OR SUBSTITUTION; COATING BY VACUUM
EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATION OR BY
45
CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL
45
PREPARATIONS FOR MEDICAL, DENTAL, OR TOILET PURPOSES
35
JPO: Technology Field
Basic Analysis- JPO Technology Fields
•
Top 10 technology fields by year (1976-2004) (“title-abstract” search)
Top 10 JPO Technology Fields (IPC)
30
25
C01B
20
H01J
G01N
G01B
15
B01J
H01S
10
B82B
C23C
• While many of the other
technology fields
experienced a decrease
in recent years,
technology field “C01B:
Non-metallic elements;
compounds thereof,” still
kept a steady publication
trend.
A61K
5
Year
2004
2002
2003
2001
1999
2000
1998
1997
1995
1996
1994
1993
1991
1992
1990
1988
1989
1987
1986
1984
1985
1983
1982
1980
1981
1979
1977
1978
0
1976
Number of Patents
H01L
• The top 3 technology
fields (in IPC
classification) in USPO
also show up in the JPO
top 10 list, but not the top
3. EPO and JPO share
many common
technology fields among
the top 10.
36
Analysis
USPTO
Patent publication
Number of patents by country in each year
Number of patents by country group in each year
Number of patents by assignee in each year
Number of patents by technology field in each year
Patent importance / strength of a repository
Average number of cites by country
Average number of cites by assignee
Average number of cites by technology field
Topic coverage
Content map analysis
Knowledge diffusion
Country citation network analysis
Institution citation network analysis
Technology field network analysis
EPO JPO
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37
USPTO/EPO: Average Cites by Country
Basic Analysis- Average Number of Cites by Country
•
USPTO top 10 countries with more than
20 patents based on the average number
of cites measure (1976-2004) (“titleclaims” search)
Country Name
Number of Patents
United States
9,018
Australia
64
Switzerland
102
Japan
1,113
Canada
204
Ireland
26
United Kingdom
139
Federal Republic of Germany
463
Denmark
22
France
482
•
EPO top 10 countries with more than 20
patents based on the average number of
cites measure (1978-2004) (“titleabstract” search)
Average Number of Cites
Country Name
Number of Patents
Average Number of Cites
3.05
2.56
2.51
2.48
2.16
1.88
1.73
1.43
1.27
1.24
Japan
Spain
Belgium
Republic of Korea
France
Canada
United States
Netherlands
Switzerland
Israel
335
23
42
98
234
28
1,044
55
86
23
0.27
0.22
0.19
0.17
0.15
0.14
0.12
0.11
0.10
0.09
38
USPTO/EPO: Average Cites by Assignee
Basic Analysis- Average Number of Cites by Assignee
•
USPTO top 10 assignees with more than •
40 patents based on the average number
of cites measure (1976-2004) (“title-claims”
search)
Assignee Name
Hyperion Catalysis International, Inc.
PPG Industries, Inc.
Allied Signal Inc.
Xerox Corporation
The Regents of the University of California
International Business Machines Corporation
Dow Corning Corporation
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
General Motors Corporation
Number of
Patents
47
66
43
226
201
423
55
51
195
40
Average Number
of Cites
9.77
8.24
6.23
5.38
5.33
5.02
4.62
4.33
4.30
4.18
EPO top 10 assignees based with more
than 15 on the average number of cites
measure (1978-2004) (“title-abstract”
search)
Assignee Name
LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC
ILJIN NANOTECH CO LTD
IBM
OREAL
MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC IND CO LTD
ROHM & HAAS
SAMSUNG SDI CO LTD
CENTRE NAT RECH SCIENT
EASTMAN KODAK CO
BASF AG
Number of
Patents
21
17
47
50
24
41
17
18
41
26
Average Number
of Cites
0.71
0.59
0.49
0.44
0.38
0.37
0.29
0.28
0.24
0.23
39
USPTO/EPO: Average Cites by Tech Field
Basic Analysis- Average Number of Cites by Technology Field
•
USPTO top 10 technology fields with more •
than 40 patents based on the average
number of cites measure (1976-2004)
(“title-claims” search)
Technology Field
C12M
B44C
D01F
H01J
G03G
G01B
C03C
A61B
A61N
G11C
Number of Patents
Average Number of Cites
59
93
90
637
175
270
143
263
113
147
6.31
5.92
5.87
5.36
5.26
5.15
5.13
4.32
4.06
4.05
EPO top 10 technology fields with more
than 15 patents based on the average
number of cites measure (1978-2004)
(“title-abstract” search)
Technology Field
G01B
H01J
C09D
H01F
G03C
D01F
B05D
A61K
G11B
C08F
Number of Patents
Average Number of Cites
88
123
73
51
22
51
44
348
60
62
0.48
0.45
0.30
0.27
0.27
0.22
0.20
0.18
0.17
0.16
40
Analysis
USPTO
Patent publication
Number of patents by country in each year
Number of patents by country group in each year
Number of patents by assignee in each year
Number of patents by technology field in each year
Patent importance / strength of a repository
Average number of cites by country
Average number of cites by assignee
Average number of cites by technology field
Topic coverage
Content map analysis
Knowledge diffusion
Country citation network analysis
Institution citation network analysis
Technology field network analysis
EPO JPO
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41
Content Map Analysis
Documents
Keyword Extraction
Arizona Noun
Phraser
•
•
•
Topic Similarity
Topics
Visualization
Topic Relation Analysis
SOM Algorithm
Technology topics ,represented by keywords in the documents, are extracted
using a Natural Language Processing tool, the Arizona Noun Phraser, which
can identify the key noun phrases based primarily on the linguistic patterns of
free texts.
The technology topics map are organized by the multi-level self-organization
map algorithm (Chen et al., 1996; Ong et al., 2005) developed by the Arizona
Artificial Intelligence Lab. This algorithm calculates the topic similarities
according to the co-occurrence patterns of key phrases in document titles and
abstracts.
The topics are positioned geographically on a graph according to their similarity
by the topic map interface.
42
USPTO: Content Map 1976-1989
Content Map Analysis (USPTO)
• USPTO Content Map (1976-1989) (“title-claims” search)
43
USPTO: Content Map 1990-1999; 2000-2004
Content Map Analysis (USPTO)
-0.34 0.08 1.50 1.98
2.40
2.80
3.22
3.69
4.33
4.79
5.54
NEW
REGION
-1.96 -0.75 -0.12 0.35 0.77
1.17
1.59 2.07
2.71
3.17
3.92
NEW
REGION
•USPTO Content Map (1990-1999) (“title-claims” search) •USPTO Content Map (2000-2004) (“title-claims” search)
44
EPO: Content Map 1976-1989
Content Map Analysis (EPO)
• EPO Content Map (1978-1989) (“title-abstract” search)
45
EPO: Content Map 1990-1999; 2000-2004
Content Map Analysis (EPO)
2.38 3.59
4.22 4.71
5.12
5.53
5.94
6.42
7.06
7.52
8.27
NEW
REGION
•EPO Content Map (1990-1999) (“title-abstract” search)
-2.04
-0.83 -0.19
0.28
0.70 1.10
1.52
2.00
2.63
3.09
3.84
NEW
REGION
•EPO Content Map (2000-2004) “title-abstract” search
46
JPO: Content Map 1976-1989
Content Map Analysis (JPO)
• JPO Content Map (1976-1989) (“title-abstract” search)
47
JPO: Content Map 1990-1999; 2000-2004
Content Map Analysis (JPO)
79.6 80.8
81.5 81.9
82.3 82.8
83.2
83.6
84.3
84.7
85.5
NEW
REGION
--3.3
-2.09 -1.45 -0.98
-0.56 -0.16
0.25
0.73
1.37
1.83
2.58
NEW
REGION
•JPO Content Map (1990-1999) (“title-abstract” search) •JPO Content Map (1999-2004) (“title-abstract” search)
48
Analysis
USPTO
Patent publication
Number of patents by country in each year
Number of patents by country group in each year
Number of patents by assignee in each year
Number of patents by technology field in each year
Patent importance / strength of a repository
Average number of cites by country
Average number of cites by assignee
Average number of cites by technology field
Topic coverage
Content map analysis
Knowledge diffusion
Country citation network analysis
Institution citation network analysis
Technology field network analysis
EPO JPO
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49
USPTO: Country Citation
Citation Network Analysis- USPTO Countries
(by “title-claims” search)
50
EPO: Country Citation
Citation Network Analysis- EPO Countries
(by “title-abstract” search)
51
USPTO: Institution Citation
Citation Network Analysis- USPTO Institutions
(by “title-claims” search)
52
EPO: Institution Citation
Citation Network Analysis- EPO Institutions
(by “title-abstract” search)
53
USPTO: Tech Field Citation
Citation Network Analysis- USPTO Technology Fields (US class)
(by “title-claims” search)
54
EPO: Tech Field Citation
Citation Network Analysis- EPO Technology Fields
(by “title-abstract” search)
55
Conclusions
• From the content map analysis, USPTO patents cover more
topic areas than EPO and JPO.
– Many of the EPO and JPO topics were related to research
tools/methods.
– Many of the EPO topics were related to physics research.
– USPTO topics covered research in physics, biomedicine, and
electronics.
• The USPTO repository and EPO repository have different
focuses and strengths in different technology fields, in terms of
the cites per patent measure.
• In the institution citation network, USPTO institutions have more
self-citations than EPO institutions.
56
Analysis Performed
USPTO
Patent publication
Number of patents by country in each year
Number of patents by country group in each year
Number of patents by assignee in each year
Number of patents by technology field in each year
Patent importance / strength of a repository
Average number of cites by country
Average number of cites by assignee
Average number of cites by technology field
Topic coverage
Content map analysis
Knowledge diffusion
Country citation network analysis
Institution citation network analysis
Technology field network analysis
EPO JPO
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57