Patents as indicators for the evaluation of industrial research output

Abstract

Patent indicators are used in the evaluation of industrial research at many different levels of aggregation. They are used in policy-level applications to look at industrial research capability from a national or regional viewpoint comparing, for example, EU regional technology with that of Japan and North America. They are used in strategic-level applications to look at industrial research from a company viewpoint. For example, CHI Research, Inc. has used them to compare auto company research output company-by-company and technology-by-technology. They are used in tactical-level applications, typically involving technology tracing—where the performance of research groups is measured against one another within the domain of a specific technology. At the tactical level these indicators can characterize industrial research in three planes or stages: The early Precursor Plane, the current Technology Plane and the future-oriented Successor Plane. Finally, at the most precise level of evaluation, patent indicator techniques are now beginning to be used in the United States in establishing the value of patent portfolios for cross-licensing purposes, and in patent infringement litigation, where citation techniques demonstrate the importance and utility of patented technology.