Patent quality: Towards a Systematic Framework for Analysis and Measurement

Kyle Higham, Gaétan de Rassenfosse and Adam Jaffe

Working Papers from Chair of Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy

Abstract: The ‘quality’ of novel technological innovations is extremely variable, and the ability to measure innovation quality is essential to sensible, evidence-based policy. Patents, an often vital precursor to a commercialised innovation, share this heterogeneous quality distribution. A pertinent question then arises: How should we deï¬ ne and measure patent quality? Accepting that different parties have different views of, and different sets of terminologies for discussing this concept, we take a multi-dimensional view of patent quality in this work. We ï¬ rst test the consistency of popular post-grant outcomes that are often used as patent quality measures. Finding these measures to be generally inconsistent, we then use a raft of patent indicators available at the time of grant to dissect the characteristics of different post-grant outcomes. We ï¬ nd broad disagreement in the relative importance of individual characteristics between outcomes and, further, signiï¬ cant variation of the same across technologies within outcomes. We conclude that measurement of patent quality is highly sensitive to both the observable outcome selected and the technology type. Our ï¬ ndings bear concrete implications for scholarly research using patent data and policy discussions about patent quality.

Keywords: Patent; Patent quality; Patent value; Patent citation; Patent policy; Technological impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O30 O34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2021-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-ipr and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Patent Quality: Towards a Systematic Framework for Analysis and Measurement (2021)
Working Paper: Patent Quality: Towards a Systematic Framework for Analysis and Measurement (2020)
Working Paper: Patent Quality: Towards a Systematic Framework for Analysis and Measurement (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iip:wpaper:14

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