Jun Hosoya

An empirical analysis on progress of technology fusion

In order to analyze the progress of research based on the integration of leading edge technologies, this paper introduces three types of patent data categorization, namely the Mix, Only and Mono-IPC type, respectively, expanding the concept of IPC Co-Occurrence. Additionally, the concept of innovation coordinate is introduced as a mean to investigate status and trends of R&D in the field of fuel cells for the years from 2000 to 2004. It is shown that yearly positions determined by the sets of patent applications in Japan concerning fuel cell kept changing during the period; occupation ratio of MIX type inventions decreased while those of Only and Mono-IPC type increased. The declining trend of MIX type, which is considered to be common in the convergence process of technology fusion toward the launch of new products based on cutting-edge technologies, is also observed in the field of micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS). Our future work includes both the trilateral comparison by adding European and US patent datasets, and also, hybrid analyses by introducing external data such as R&D expenditures to investigate the validity and/or the application limit of the present analysis in the quantitative study of the dynamics of innovation.

Analysis of a Time Lag of Patents Application and Product Shipment: For the Japanese Digital Camera Maker

I carried out the Japanese application patent for four digital camera makers and the correlation analysis of the value of total shipments. By the analysis of correlation, I considered time lag of 6 years between the patent application year and the shipment year. I separated the application patent in the patent of the camera body and the patent of the digital part. As a result, the case which became effective was less than 20%. The time lags of the camera body patent application year and the shipment year tended to become less than three years. As for the time lag of the digital the patent application year and the shipment year, the tendency was not seen.

Study of the Different Fusion on Technologies of Different Fields Degree of the Digital Camera Manufacturer Using Application Patent Data

In this analysis, we examined the patent situation in Japanese digital camera manufacturers. By utilizing technological classifications of IPC that assigned to patent bibliographies, we conducted comparative studies of the fusion degree of technologies in different fields between long-established camera manufacturers and new electronics manufacturers, from the perspectives of analog patents that have been researched and developed since the film camera era and digital patents that have been adopted since digital camera. As the results of distribution ratio of fusion degree of technologies, it showed that there is a certain tendency which has not seen in the number of application patents.

Efficiency of hidden knowledge spillovers between firms and universities in Japan: An empirical analysis based on patent data

This paper investigates the effect of knowledge spillovers from academia to industry by focusing on patents transferred from universities to enterprises. In many studies, joint patent applications are utilized to measure the economic effects of academia-industry alliance, since such patents are considered to be one of the most significant research outputs. However, in reality, most important scientific or technological results of joint research are considered to be transferred from universities to companies for a fee before related patent applications are filed. On the basis of quantitative analysis of patent data in Japan, it is shown that, at least for enterprises, knowledge flows of transferred patents play a more significant role than those concerning joint applications. Since both the patent allowance rate and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) application rate of transferred patents are larger than those of joint applications, it is suggested that, on average, higher marks are given for transferred patents both by examiners and enterprises. In addition, we discuss how the detailed differences in open innovation strategies of each company can be depicted by utilizing the shares of transferred patents.