Quick or Broad Patents? Evidence from U.S. Startups

We study the effects of patent scope and review times on startups and externalities on their rivals. We leverage the quasi-random assignment of U.S. patent applications to examiners and find that grant delays reduce a startup’s employment and sales growth, chances of survival, access to external capital, and future innovation. Delays also harm the growth, access to external capital, and follow-on innovation of the patentee’s rivals, suggesting that quick patents enhance both inventor rewards and generate positive externalities. Broader scope increases a startup’s future growth (conditional on survival) and innovation but imposes negative externalities on its rivals’ growth and innovation.

How tall is your claim? Strategically acing patent scope

Purpose The article examines strategically directing the breadth of scope of a patent and hazards of litigation vis-à-vis the length of claims for innovating firms. Design/methodology/approach This paper enumerates latest literature on assessing patent scope and hence protection afforded to firm innovations. Based on prior research findings, this paper proposes to maintain a balanced and nuanced approach to claim drafting to assure grant of patent while minimizing litigation threats. Findings To strategically manage patent grant and minimize litigation threat, firms would better take a leaf out of academic discourse and streamline claim drafting – not too wide to earn an examiner’s ire and not too narrow to let an infringer bypass by. Unlike smaller firms or universities, big firms are less likely to renew a patent with less scope. Research limitations/implications The study sample in contemporary literature is exclusive to patents from US Patent and Trademark Office. Whether the same result will be replicated for diverse countries is uncertain. Practical implications The understanding that patent scope not only influences grant chances but also is an indicator of future litigation threat can help patent practitioners and innovating firms in strategically directing the patent. Originality/value The paper draws from the findings of three well-articulated recent research papers. The paper’s originality and value is in providing practical insights on how to perfect patent scope in a real world based on academic discourse.

Expression and Biochemical Characterization of a Yersinia intermedia Phytase Expressed in Escherichia coli

Background: Phytases are enzymes capable of degrading phytic acid and used in animal feed supplementation in order to improve digestibility through the release of minerals such as phosphorus. Objective: The main goal of this study was to express and characterize a Yersinia intermedia phytase expressed in Escherichia coli cells. Methods: The Y. intermedia phytase gene was synthesized and overexpressed in Escherichia coli cells. The phytase recombinante (rPHY) was purified to homogeneity using a Ni-NTA column. The biochemical and biophysical properties of the rPHY were measured in order to fully characterize the recombinant enzyme. The following patents database were consulted: Espacenet, USPTO, LATIPAT, Patent Scope, WIPO and Google Patents. Results: The results showed that the rPHY is active at 37-40ºC and presented an optimal pH and temperature of 8.0 and 40°C, respectively. The phytase rPHY was activated by Cu2+ ion and showed resistance to trypsin and pepsin, retaining 55% of the activity at the ratio of 0.02. Furthermore, the dissociation constant (Kd = 1.1150 ± 0.0087 mM), as estimated by a fluorescence binding assay, suggests a medium affinity of the enzyme with the substrate. Conclusion: The results of this article can be considered as innovative and for this reason, they were protected by Intellectual Property Law in Brazil. Take together, the biochemical properties of the rPHY could be useful in future for its industrial application of this enzyme as an additive in the monogastric feed.

A well-tailored centrality measure for evaluating patents and their citations

Purpose The development of innovations in all the research and development (R&D) fields is leading to a huge increase of patent data. Therefore, it is reasonable to foresee that, in the next future, Big Data-centered techniques will be compulsory to fully exploit the potential of this kind of data. In this context, network analysis-based approaches are extremely promising. The purpose of this paper is to provide a contribution to this setting. In fact, the authors propose a well-tailored centrality measure for evaluating patents and their citations. Design/methodology/approach The authors preliminarily introduce a suitable support directed network representing patents and their citations. After this, the authors present the centrality measures, namely, “Naive Patent Degree” and “Refined Patent Degree.’” Then, the authors show why they are well tailored to capture the specificities of the patent scenario and why classical centrality measure fails to fully reach this purpose. Findings The authors present three possible applications of the measures, namely: the computation of a patent “scope” allowing the evaluation of the width and the strength of the influence of a patent on a given R&D field; the computation of a patent lifecycle; and the detection of the so-called “power patents,” i.e., the most relevant patents, and the investigation of the importance, for a patent, to be cited by a power patent. Originality/value None of the approaches proposing the application of centrality measures to patent citation networks consider the main peculiarity of this scenario, i.e., that, if a patent pi cites a patent pj, then the value of pi decreases. So, differently from classical scientific paper citation scenario, in this one performing a citation has a cost for the citing entity. This fact is not considered by all the approaches conceived to investigate paper citations. Nevertheless, this feature represents the core of patent citation scenario. The approach has been explicitly conceived to capture this feature.

Deriving Competitive Foresight Using an Ontology-Based Patent Roadmap and Valuation Analysis

An ontology-based patent roadmap and valuation analysis approach provides competitive foresights for a corporation's associated patent portfolios and the underlying business processes. To demonstrate the methodology and computer supported analysis system, the patent portfolios of two global smart e-retailers are compared. The patents in each company's portfolio are text mined and categorized based on the smart retailing ontology schema. Both cases' text mining results are plotted as patent portfolio roadmaps, linking patents to innovation categories, commercial applications, and business process models. The three-dimensional (3-D) patent valuation analysis method provides foresights of the companies' competitive advantages related to “patent scope” (PS), “patent importance” (PI), and “patent innovation” (PIN). The research implements a computer supported system to provide evidence how companies utilize patent portfolios as key strategies for protecting business related intellectual properties (IPs) while implementing sustainable and competitive business processes.