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Please cite as follows

de Rassenfosse, G., Dernis, H., Guellec, D., Picci, L. & van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, B., 2013. "The worldwide count of priority patents: A new indicator of inventive activity". Research Policy 42(3), 720-737.


Overview

Abstract
This paper describes a new patent-based indicator of inventive activity. The indicator is based on counting all the priority patent applications filed by a country's inventors, regardless of the patent office in which the application is filed, and can therefore be considered as a complete 'matrix' of all patent counts. The method has the advantage of covering more inventions than the selective Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) or triadic families counts, while at the same time limiting the home-country bias of single-country-based indicators (inventors from a particular country tend to file in their own country). The indicator is particularly useful to identify emerging technologies and to assess the innovation performance of developing economies.

Keywords: patent count; patent indicator; patent statistics; Patstat; priority count; priority filing; worldwide count
JEL classification: O30; O57

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Personal notes

This article:


Data

The MySQL script is also available from the RunMyCode website. The data is visible in Google Public Data.


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Other known (older) versions of the paper



Frequently Asked Questions

Question #1: Where can I find more recent data?
Answer: Please have a look at data available in Google Public Data Explorer (and select the most recent version of Patstat). The same information is also available in an Excel file for convenience. If you need the most recent data, please contact me.

Technical Issue #1: The following error is returned: "ERROR 1055 (42000) at line ---: 'v_family_extended.subsequent_id' isn't in GROUP BY"
Solution: A first solution involves checking your MySQL settings, in particular the sql_mode system variable. A second solution involves slightly altering the query by replacing "GROUP BY appln_id;" to "GROUP BY appln_id, subsequent_id;" when relevant. Download this pdf file to compare differences in final count between the two scripts. The following lines of code need to be altered:

-- B.1.2 Select the most appropriate (i.e. earliest) equivalent
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW v_family_selectedSF AS
SELECT appln_id, subsequent_id, min(subsequent_date)
FROM `v_family_extended`
GROUP BY appln_id, subsequent_id;

-- B.2.2 Select the most appropriate (i.e. earliest) subsequent filing
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW v_family_selectedSF AS
SELECT appln_id, subsequent_id, min(subsequent_date)
FROM `v_family_extended`
GROUP BY appln_id, subsequent_id;

-- D.1.2 Select the most appropriate (i.e. earliest) equivalent
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW v_family_selectedSF AS
SELECT appln_id, subsequent_id, min(subsequent_date)
FROM `v_family_extended`
GROUP BY appln_id, subsequent_id;

-- D.2.2 Select the most appropriate (i.e. earliest) subsequent filing
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW v_family_selectedSF AS
SELECT appln_id, subsequent_id, min(subsequent_date)
FROM `v_family_extended`
GROUP BY appln_id, subsequent_id;

Technical Issue #2: I am not using MySQL but another variant of SQL (such as Microsoft SQL or PL/SQL).
Solution: I am sharing the final table (see Data section above) so that you don't have to run the script yourself. But if you want to run it, well... you will need to rewrite the script so that it is compatible with your variant of SQL. All I can offer is to share your script on this page once you are done, for the greater good (with due credit of course).

Contributor: Nico Rasters. Thanks!