Zhi-Yun Zhao

International scientific and technological collaboration of China from 2004 to 2008: a perspective from paper and patent analysis

Since China adopted Open-Up and Reformed Policy for global collaboration, China’s science and technology have experienced an astounding growth. Papers and patents encompass valuable scientific and technological (S&T) information and collaborative efforts. This article studies China’s international S&T collaboration from the perspective of paper and patent analysis. The results show that China’s total papers and patents have continuously increased from 2004 to 2008, the papers and patents resulting from China’s international collaboration also present a steady growth. However, there is a decline in the share of international collaboration papers and patents with a certain range due to the rapid independent R&D. China’s international scientific collaboration (ISC) is broadly distributed over many countries, the USA being the most important ISC partners. China’s international technological collaboration (ITC) is mainly carried out with USA and Taiwan, and Taiwan has been the most significant ITC partner of when taking countries’ patent output into account. Besides, ISC shows a continuous raise of Chinese papers’ citation. Even the countries with a small amount of papers and ISC with China, exert a positive influence on the impact of citation of Chinese papers as well. However, ITC does not always play an active role in the improvement of citation impact of Chinese patents.

The inventive activities and collaboration pattern of university---industry---government in China based on patent analysis

China’s economy and technology have experienced spectacular growth since the Opening-up Policy adopted in 1978. In order to explore the innovation process and development of China, this study examines the inventive activities and the collaboration pattern of university, industry and government (UIG) in China. This study analyzes the Chinese patent data retrieved from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Three models of UIG relations which represent different triple helix configurations are introduced. According to the property of patent assignee, patent ownership can be divided into three types: individuals, enterprises, and universities and research institutes. Furthermore, enterprises can be classified into state-owned enterprise (SOE), private-owned enterprise (POE) and foreign enterprise (FE). The corresponding relationship of patent ownership with UIG is set up. Through analyzing the issued year, it is found that the inventive activities of China have experienced three developmental phases and have been promoted quickly in recent years. The achievement of innovation activities in China primarily falls on the enterprise, especially FEs and POEs. The innovation strengths of the three development phases have shifted from government to university and research institute and then industry. According to co-patent analysis, it is found that the collaboration between university and industry is the strongest and has been intensified in recent years, but other forms of collaboration among UIG have been weak. In addition, an innovation relation model of China was set up. The evolution process of innovation systems was explored, from etatistic model, followed by improved “laissez-faire” model, and then shifting toward triple helix model.

International collaboration development in nanotechnology: a perspective of patent network analysis

International collaboration has played an important role in the development of nanotechnology. Patents encompass valuable technological information and collaborative efforts. Thus, this paper examines international collaboration development in nanotechnology using patent network analysis. The results show that the number of international collaboration nanotechnology patents has increased steadily and the proportion of them of total nanotechnology patents has likewise exhibited an upward trend. USA has always been the most influential participant with largest number of international collaboration patents. Asian countries/regions have shown an obvious increase in the number of international collaboration patents. By contrast, there have shown a generally decline in European countries. More and more countries have become actively engaged in international collaboration in nanotechnology with increasingly closer relationships. Two styles of international collaboration exit: while USA, Germany, UK and Japan collaborate with a wide range of countries/regions; Spain, Israel, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan are more selective in their collaboration partners. Though International collaboration has yet to find global significance in terms of patent citation impacts, it has nevertheless been incremental in improving patent citation impacts for most of the top 20 countries/regions since 2004.

Technological collaboration patterns in solar cell industry based on patent inventors and assignees analysis

This study examines technological collaboration in the solar cell industry using the information of patent assignees and inventors as defined by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Three different collaborative types, namely local (same city), domestic (different cities of the same country), and international collaboration, are discussed. The general status of solar cell patent collaborations, transforming trends of collaborative patterns, average numbers of assignees and inventors for three collaborative types, and international collaboration countries are studied. It is found that co-invented patents and co-assigned patents have both increased in numbers during the four decades studied, and that collaboration between technology owners is very low while the collaboration between inventors is active. Domestic collaboration is the main collaborative pattern for both assignee collaboration and inventor collaboration. The other two collaborative types show contrary trends: international collaboration has slowly risen in the past decades while local collaboration has dwindled. The US has the largest number of internationally collaborative patents worldwide, though such patents account for a low portion of total US patents. In contrast, China has a small total number of patents and internationally collaborative patents, however its international collaborative shares are higher. The international collaboration patents among countries are few. A co-assigned patent analysis indicates that the main international cooperation partner of the United States is Japan. Based on an international co-invented patent analysis, the main international collaboration partners of the United States are Britain, Japan, and Germany; and the United States is also the most important collaboration partner of China.

Industry evolution and key technologies in China based on patent analysis

Patents are the manifestation of the industry’s research and development (R&D) endeavor; therefore, this paper studies the industry evolution of and key technologies in China from the perspective of patent analysis. Patents in six types of industries, including Chemical (excluding Drugs), Computers and Communications, Drugs and Medical, Electrical and Electronics (E&E), Mechanical, and Others are analyzed in this study. Findings from the analysis show a steady increase of US granted utility patents in China as well as percentage of these patents in the world over the period between 2003 and 2008. All the above industries in China have been growing rapidly during this period, which is very different from the global industry development. Despite the rapid development, the citation rates of these patents have been low, reflecting a need for improvement in the quality of patents and R&D performance for these six industries in China in order to exert more influence in the industry world. The analysis on patents also reveals China’s industry distribution to be similar to the global industry distribution, with the exception of E&E industry which weights over one third of the total patents in technologies. The E&E industry is also the field with largest economic growth which rises more rapidly after 2006 with a sudden increase of patents in USPC 361. Detailed tracking of the key technology evolution reveals that 90% of the newly issued patents in USPC 361 after 2006 are owned by Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd, pointing to an unbalanced R&D environment in China’s E&E industry sector. By providing the insight into the evolution of China’s industrial and technological development through the perspective of patent analysis, this paper hopes to provide an objective statistic reference for future policy directions and academic researches.

Influences of counting methods on country rankings: a perspective from patent analysis

The counting of patents and citations is commonly used to evaluate technological innovation and its impact. However, in an age of increasing international collaboration, the counting of international collaboration patents has become a methodological issue. This study compared country rankings using four different counting methods (i.e. whole counting, straight counting, whole-normalized counting, complete-normalized counting) in patent, citation and citation-patent ratio (CP ratio) counts. It also observed inflation depending on the method used. The counting was based on the complete 1992–2011 patent and citation data issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office. The results show that counting methods have only minor effects on country rankings in patent count, citation count and CP ratio count. All four counting methods yield reliable country ranks in technology innovation capability and impact. While the influences of counting methods vary between patent count, citation count and CP ratio count, counting methods may exert slightly greater effects on CP ratio counts than on patent and citation counts. As for the inflation, the distributions of higher and lower inflation by the four counting methods are different in patent, citation and CP ratio counts.