OECD work on patents

Objectives

The objective of the OECD patent project is to develop databases and methodologies, and to improve data accessibility for researchers and policy makers.

Conference on Patent Statistics for Policy Decision Making 
Venice (Italy), 2-3 October 2007,
organised by OECD and the European Patent Office (EPO).

The aim of this conference is to reflect on recent advances in the field, by gathering research of policy and analytical relevance making use of the most recent statistical instruments available. Policy and analytical fields to be covered include patent policy, innovation policy, industry-science relationships, regional development, value of patents, knowledge spillovers, markets for technology etc. (see agenda).

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Compendium of Patent Statistics 2007

This report presents various patent indicators to reflect recent trends in innovative activity across a wide range of OECD and non-OECD countries, with 7 main sections: triadic patent families; patenting at the national, regional and international level; patenting in selected technology areas; patents by institutional sectors; international co-operation in inventive activities; science linkages in technology.  

• Pdf version of the report
• Data and figures in Excel format 
• Glossary of patent terminology

Patent database

The OECD has made considerable efforts to develop patent data and indicators that are suitable for statistical analysis and that can help address S&T policy issues. The patent database includes EPO, USPTO and "Triadic" patent families indicators. The database now provides indicators based on patent applications filed under the Patent Co-operation Treaty (PCT), designating the EPO, by IPC.

• Patent indicators by main IPC class
• Patent indicators by main USPC class 
• International co-operation in patents 
  

Work is ongoing to develop patent indicators based on data from the JPO, the UK Patent Office, the French Patent Office (INPI) and other selected national offices, as well as a citations database.

OECD patent indicators are counted according to the priority date, which is the closest to the date of invention. However, there is a time lag between the priority date and the availability of patent information. To improve the timeliness of the OECD patent indicators, the latest years are estimated at an aggregated level. Estimated figures are provided online for total EPO and total triadic patent families up to priority date 2005, and for total USPTO up to priority date 2003, according to the residence of the inventor.  

Patent indicators are regularly published in various OECD publications (e.g. the Compendium of Patent Statistics, Main Science and Technology Indicators (MSTI), the OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard, etc.)

Methodological work

To understand and interpret patent statistics in an accurate manner, it is essential to understand the underlying methodological information. The following issues have been (or are being) investigated: 

• Criteria for counting patent data
• Triadic patent families methodology
• Patent data by industry and associated software
• Patent data for specific technology areas
• Analysing European and International Patent Citations: A Set of EPO Patent Database Building Blocks  
• Impact of Patent Cooperation Treaty Data on EPO Patent Statistics and Improving the Timeliness of EPO Indicators
  

Patent Statistics Task Force

The project activities are conducted in close co-operation with the members of the Patent Statistics Task Force, which gathers representatives from the European Commission (EC), the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japanese Patent Office (JPO), the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

• Summary Record of the recent meeting
  

An intermediate meeting of the Task Force was held at WIPO headquarters in Geneva on 21 May 2007, to review the EPO Worldwide Patent Statistical Database (PATSTAT), with about 40 participants, mostly users of the database. The agenda, summary record of the meeting and presentations are available here.

2006 Workshop on Patent Statistics for Policy Decision Making

The conference was organised by EPO and OECD, with the support of the EC, JPO, NSF, USPTO, WIPO and was held in Vienna on 23-24 October 2006.

The conference featured presentations of state-of-the-art patent statistics: new databases, indicators, and policy-oriented analysis making use of patent statistics. A broad range of experts from Europe, Japan and the United States, from academia, from patent offices and from international organisations participated in the workshop. The programme and presentations are available on the EPO Academy Website.

2004 WIPO-OECD Workshop on the Use of Patent Statistics

The workshop was held on 11-12 October 2004 and attended by approximately 90 participants (representing patent offices, national statistical offices, research ministries, academia and international organisations). The workshop focused on the following topics:

• Spillovers and diffusion of knowledge.
• New ways of using patent data to address policy issues.
• Value of patents.
• Forecasting patent data. 

Presentations are available here.

2003 WIPO-OECD Workshop on Statistics in the Patent Field

The workshop was held on 18-19 September 2003 and attended by approximately 70 participants (representing patent offices, national statistical offices, research ministries, academia and international organisations). The workshop focused on the following topics:

• State of the art in patent statistics.
• Patent families. 
• Patents by field of technology.
• Patents by industry.
• Forecasting patent filings.

Presentations are available here.