'Expand/Offense' and 'Deepen/Defense' Strategy of Patent Acquisition for Leader and Follower: Evidence from Drug-Eluting Stent

摘要

This article tries to explore the strategic intension of patent acquisition for drug-eluting stent manufactures by the approach of patent citation network. From the view of supplementary and complementary, we could understand the change of patent employments and patent portfolios of the leader, Johnson & Johnson/Cordis, and the follower, Boston Scientific/BSS, before/after patent acquisition. Four patent indicators, Technological Knowledge Status, Technological Knowledge Reliability, Common Internal Knowledge, and Common External Knowledge, provide the movement of position and role and change of supplementary and complementary of manufactures. The result shows that the leader acquires patents of complementary technology and the follower acquires patents of supplementary technology. The leader employs "expand/offense" and the follow adopts "deepen/defense" strategy of patent acquisition.