Patent Statistics as an Innovation Indicator

This chapter summarizes the basic characteristics of patent data as an innovation indicator and reviews some of the recent research using patent data, focusing on major developments since Griliches in 1990 [Griliches, Z. (1990). “Patent statistics as economic indicators: A survey”. Journal of Economic Literature 28, 1661–1707]. The first notable development is the availability of patent data on an increasingly global scale and the accompanying global spread of research using patent data. The availability of global patent data has increased the value of patent information in a number of ways. The second notable development is the significant expansion of research using citation information as well as better understanding of its nature. Citation information has been found to provide very useful information on the value of patents, although backward citation as a measure of information flow is found to be more controversial. The third major development is the extensive implementation of surveys such as the “innovation survey” of firms and the inventor survey. They have deepened our understanding of the usefulness and the constraints of bibliographic indicators based on patent. The forth development is better understanding of the nature of the patent system and the reformulation of patent data, a good example of which is the development of patent family data, based on priority information.