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

人们普遍认为，美国在基础研究方面仍处于世界领先地位，但在将这项研究商业化利用方面做得不够。尤其令人担心的是，由于美国公司未能将研究成果商业化，大学和其他非营利性机构的公共资助研究无法产生尽可能高的收益。这个项目有两个基本目标。一是开发一种方法，根据专利引用的模式，量化发明的“基础”程度。另一种是再次使用专利引用数据，追踪发明的传播和随后的商业化的地理模式，特别是基础发明。所有根据1975-1980年的申请分配给大学的专利都将被识别出来。此外，美国企业专利的样本也将被确定为对照。这项研究将测试，根据这些衡量标准，大学专利是否确实比企业专利更基础，以及了解这项研究的人是否认为，根据引用模式衡量的专利通常是基础专利。引用数据还将用于追踪大学和公司专利随后商业化的地理位置。这项研究之所以重要，是因为它将提供对技术变革和扩散过程的更好理解。

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.