A new approach to measuring invention commercialization: An application to the SBIR program

Can we develop a web‑based method to measure the commercialization of patented inventions?

Understanding the commercialization of patented inventions is essential for evaluating the effectiveness of innovation policies like the SBIR program. Since traditional methods often rely on surveys or isolated success stories, there is an imperative need for a systematic approach that provides reliable data on commercialization outcomes. Our proposed method aims to address data scarcity and offer insights on how public funding influences commercialization, which can inform policy decisions and improve resource allocation in innovation funding.

We developed a web‑based method to measure the commercialization of patented inventions, applying it to 3,070 patents resulting from the U.S. Department of Defense's SBIR program. Our approach links patents with specific procurement contracts and uses targeted web searches to identify commercialization traces. We followed a systematic data‑collection process leveraging government contracts from 1983–2018 and patent records from the USPTO to establish connections between awarded contracts and patented inventions.

Our method identifies that 21.5% of the patents show signs of commercialization, with significant variation across R&D stages and contract phases. Notably, we find that SBIR‑funded patents are 17% more likely to be commercialized than benchmark patents. Additionally, we observe a stronger commercialization likelihood for patents linked to Phase II contracts compared to Phase I contracts, suggesting that subsequent funding phases significantly enhance commercialization prospects.

• 3,070 patents from the SBIR program (filing years: 1984–2019), linked to 2,213 procurement contracts.
• Publicly available federal award data from the Defense Contract Action Data System (DCADS) and USAspending.gov, covering federal contracts from 1983 to 2018.

• The patents considered are representative of those linked to SBIR funding and are appropriately characterized by their contract phases and R&D stages.
• The web‑based methodology accurately captures commercialization traces relevant to the patents in the dataset.
• The linkage between awarded contracts and patent commercialization outcomes reflects the incentives and outcomes of the SBIR program.