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GitPat: A Database Linking Open Source Contributions & Patenting Activity of Organizations

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  • Sergio Petralia

Abstract

This article outlines a method to link organizations’ patenting activities at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) with their Open Source Software (OSS) contributions in GitHub, the most popular code-hosting service platform. It also provides two ready-to-use databases that are easy to connect to related data sources. The first includes information about all contributions (6,091,653) made to 54 of the most popular OSS projects until June 2024, amounting to over 49 million file changes and more than 3.3 billion line modifications. The second includes information on patents granted until June 2024 (1,719,510) to 1,328 organizations with activity in GitHub. This novel data can be used to explore the dynamics and mechanisms driving innovation within modern technological ecosystems, where the lines between proprietary and open-source development are becoming blurry. It offers an opportunity to investigate several unresolved puzzles in the economics of OSS literature, such as disentangling the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations behind individual contributions to OSS, understanding the strategic reasons organizations engage in OSS, and exploring collaboration and geographical concentration mechanisms in the production of digital technologies.

Suggested Citation

  • Sergio Petralia, 2024. "GitPat: A Database Linking Open Source Contributions & Patenting Activity of Organizations," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2437, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2024.
    • Handle: RePEc:egu:wpaper:2437
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    File URL: http://econ.geo.uu.nl/peeg/peeg2437.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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