Getting Down to Basics:Using University and Corporate Patents to Identify Basic Inventions and Trace Their Diffusion

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It is a widely-held view that the United States remains preeminent in the world in the performance of basic research, but does an inadequate job of commercially exploiting that research. In particular, it is feared that publicly-funded research at universities and other nonprofit institutions is not yielding the highest possible benefits, because of the failure of American firms to commercialize the fruits of that research. This project has two fundamental objectives. One is to develop a methodology for quantifying the "basicness" of inventions, based on the pattern of patent citations. The other is to trace the geographic pattern of diffusion and subsequent commercialization of inventions, particularly basic ones, again using patent citation data. All patents assigned to universities based on applications from the years 1975-1980 will be identified. In addition, samples of U.S. corporate patents will also be identified as a control. The research will test whether university patents are, indeed, more basic than corporate patents according to these measures, and whether patents that are generally basic as measured by their citation patterns are perceived to be basic by people knowledgeable about the research. The citation data will also be used to trace the geographic location of any subsequent commercialization of both university and corporation patents. This research is important because it will provide a better understanding of the process of technological change and diffusion.