An Integrated Patent Indicator System for Patent Portfolios: Evidence from the Telecommunication Manufacturing Industry

摘要

Against the background of the increasing prevalence of 'patent portfolio races' in industries such as telecommunications, this paper proposes a set of patent portfolio indicators measuring the attributes of patents of scale and diversity. It uses that indicator system in a time series to analyze the patenting activity and technology strategy of the top 20 firms in the telecommunication manufacturing industry, based on a large dataset from USPTO. The data are aggregated into five five-year periods. In combination with composite and relative measures, we identify the firms' competitive positions in patenting activity for each time period. The scale indicators are first clustered in five two-dimensional matrices for different time periods to display the relative positions and their changes over time. We then measure the firms by their patent portfolio diversity at two levels: overall diversity and core technology diversity. This study provides a useful tool for strategic technology management and sheds light on patent portfolio valuation.