OECD work on patent statistics

Background | Forthcoming events
OECD Patent Statistics Manual (published February 2009)
Patent databases | Methodological work
Patent Statistics Task Force

Address of this page: www.oecd.org/sti/ipr-statistics

Background

Patent indicators are used to map aspects of the innovative performance and technological progress of countries, regions or certain specific domains and technology fields. The use of patent statistics for monitoring developments in the field of science and technology has been expanding rapidly over the recent past. Not only have the use of patent indicators increased, but also the diversity and relevance of these indicators have progressed. The OECD has developed new and more sophisticated indicators, notably on patent families, citations, etc.

Recent Events

2009 – Conference on Patent Statistics for Decision Makers
Vienna, 7-8 October 2009
Organised by the  EPO and the OECD, in cooperation with  DIME Network of Excellence, EPIP, Eurostat, JPO, NSF, USPTO and WIPO

The conference discussed advances in the analysis of patent information in the context of the current economic landscape, and in light of changes within the patent system and its use by applicants. Click here to read the programme and the call for papers.

Read more on conferences and events on patent statistics.

OECD Patent Statistics Manual

The OECD Patent Statistics Manual (published in February 2009) capitalises on new experience on patent statistics and promote the harmonisation of methodologies. It addresses issues regarding the complexity of patent data and provide statisticians and analysts with guidelines for building and analysing patent-related indicators.

Patent databases

• Predefined patent indicators that are available via OECD.Stat, and are regularly published in various analytical reports, of which the OECD Compendium of Patent Statistics. 
• Raw data: various sets of data are available to researchers upon request, notably the OECD Triadic Patent Families, OECD REGPAT and OECD/EPO Citations databases.

► Click here for further information on OECD patent data

On-going data developments:

• Trademarks statistics: the OECD has undertaken some analyses on trademark data in order to extract relevant information and to develop new trademark-based indicators of innovation. Click here for further information on OECD work on trademarks.
• Harmonisation of names: efforts are currently undertaken to develop procedures to harmonise patent applicants’ names in order to link patent data with firm-level databases. The OECD HAN database proposes a dictionary of harmonised applicant's names. A workshop on this theme was held in 2008.

Methodological work

The underlying methodological information helps to design and interpret patent statistics in an accurate manner. The following issues (relating to patent statistics as S&T indicators) are being investigated:

• Criteria for counting patents 
• Triadic patent families 
• Nowcasting patent data 
• Patents in selected technology fields: ICT and biotechnology; nanotechnology 
• Indicators of international cooperation in research activity 
• Patents by regions 
• Citations
• Trademarks statistics

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 Eurostat, the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).