Innovation Process in Japan in the Early 2000s as Seen from Inventors: Agenda for strengthening innovative capability (Japanese)

This report presents an overview of the results of an inventor survey, focusing on Japanese inventions for which priority claims were filed during the period 2003 to 2005 with both the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the European Patent Office (EPO). This survey, conducted as a part of an international research collaboration also comprising surveys of inventions in Europe and the United States, collected around 3,300 complete responses, translating to a 23% response rate. With the questionnaire designed to ask the characteristics of inventors as well as that of the innovation process, new evidence has been provided on such issues as the differences in invention activities depending on the manner in which the inventors' obtained their Ph.D. degrees—whether it was received in the regular way or based only on dissertation—, inventors' awareness of potential research competitors, the importance of patent literature as knowledge stock, status of remunerations to inventors, patent sales, start-ups, standard-based patents, the economic value of patent portfolios, and economic value by degree of inventiveness. The paper discusses the major findings as well as their implications on innovation policy.