Title: An empirical study on objectives and outcomes of university patents based on the accelerated examination of patent applications in Japan

Authors: Daisuke Kanama

Addresses: Tokyo University of Agriculture, 1-1-1, Sakuragaoka, Setagaya, 156-8502, Japan

Abstract: This paper describes an empirical study of the outcomes of university patents by focusing on the accelerated examination of patent applications. Universities have specific objectives when filing patents using the accelerated patent examination system. Therefore, it is easy to identify the objective of patenting in the case of accelerated patents. The qualitative indicators used in this study show a greater acceptance rate for accelerated patents than for ordinary patents. This finding confirms the assumption that accelerated patents are highly important for the applying universities. The empirical analysis found a positive correlation between the number of objectives and the accelerated patent ratio. The more objectives there are, the stronger is the incentive for achieving them, and the benefits are expected to outweigh the necessary cost. The outcome is measured in terms of technological realisation and license income per patent. The analysis also found that both technological realisation and license income have a positive correlation with the number of objectives.

Keywords: university patents; patenting objectives; outcomes; accelerated examination; technological realisation; license income; Japan; patent applications.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTLID.2016.079612

International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, 2016 Vol.8 No.3, pp.249 - 264

Received: 15 Aug 2015
Accepted: 02 Dec 2015
Published online: 05 Oct 2016 *

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