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Natural language processing to identify the creation and impact of new technologies in patent text: Code, data, and new measures

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  • Arts, Sam
  • Hou, Jianan
  • Gomez, Juan Carlos

Abstract

We develop natural language processing techniques to identify the creation and impact of new technologies in the population of U.S. patents. We validate the new techniques and their improvement over traditional metrics based on patent classification and citations in two case-control studies. First, we collect patents linked to awards such as the Nobel prize and the National Inventor Hall of Fame. These patents likely cover radically new technologies with a major impact on technological progress and patenting. Second, we identify patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office but simultaneously rejected by both the European and Japanese patent office. Such patents arguably lack novelty or cover small incremental advances over prior art and should have little impact on technological progress. We provide open access to code, data, and new measures for all utility patents granted by the USPTO up to May 2018 (see https://zenodo.org/record/3515985, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3515985).

Suggested Citation

  • Arts, Sam & Hou, Jianan & Gomez, Juan Carlos, 2021. "Natural language processing to identify the creation and impact of new technologies in patent text: Code, data, and new measures," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(2).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:50:y:2021:i:2:s0048733320302195
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2020.104144
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Natural language processing; Patent; Novelty; Impact; Breakthrough; Award;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O34 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Intellectual Property and Intellectual Capital
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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