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Exploiting an exogenous decrease in analyst access to private information, we show that firms with analyst following (test firms) experience a significant reduction in R&D investment, relative to firms without analyst following (control firms), after Reg FD. We also document that the negative impact on firms' R&D investment after Reg FD is borne out in firms' innovation outputs measured by patents. Additional analysis reveals that the decrease in R&D investment concentrates among test firms followed by influential analysts who likely had access to private information before Reg FD and among test firms facing disincentives to invest in R&D due to takeover pressure. Our inferences remain robust to various tests addressing potential bias arising from possible systematic differences between test and control firms. Overall this study demonstrates that private disclosures of R&D information through analysts mitigate managers' R&D investment disincentives and facilitate innovation but that this channel is impeded by Reg FD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the nature and consequences of IBM's invention pledge program, the largest of its kind in US history. Invention pledges involve the open disclosure of patentable inventions without seeking patent protection, unlike patent pledges for which firms waive patent rights after patenting. Competing theoretical views characterize invention pledges either as low-quality inventions with poor organizational fit or as patentable inventions pledged openly by firms with weak firm-specific patent rights and lead-time advantages. We test these theoretical claims using a novel method that compares the quality of subsequent patents citing IBM invention pledges with similar others. Citing IBM invention pledges is positively correlated with patent quality, inconsistent with theories of adverse selection. IBM patents cite its invention pledges on average two years before others, consistent with private benefits of open disclosure. Cited invention pledges spur follow-on innovation, further highlighting their social benefits. We discuss the generalizability of our results obtained using the sample of cited invention pledges to uncited invention pledges. Overall, our results highlight the tradeoffs firms face between knowledge protection and disclosure and generalize to a small number of other disclosing firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural gas hydrate (NGH) is a significant alternative energy resource in achieving carbon neutrality. The developmental trend and competitive landscape of NGH exploitation and production are crucial for policymakers in government, managers of enterprises, and researchers. This study introduces a novel framework for conducting an in-depth analysis of NGH, integrating patentometrics, technology evolution, and correlation relationships to monitor developmental trends and competitive landscape through patent analysis. The results indicate that China, the USA, and Japan have distinct technology advantages. Current technological developments in the NGH field focus primarily on extraction technologies, equipment, and processing systems. The co-opetition analysis among countries reveals that the most extensive international cooperation network is primarily in Europe and the USA, with national partnerships in Asia concentrated in China and Japan. Institutional cooperation remains limited, primarily within universities in China, while both the USA and Japan foster collaboration between enterprises. The competitive landscapes of key NGH-related technologies among countries and institutions are also examined. This study contributes not only to monitoring the developmental trend and competitive landscape in NGH but also to providing policy recommendations for government and enterprises regarding strategic management and collaborative innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Erlotinib (ELB) is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that targets the activity of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) protein found in both healthy and cancerous cells. It binds reversibly to the ATP-binding site of the EGFR tyrosine kinase. ELB was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2004 for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment in patients who relapsed after at least one other therapy. It was authorized for use with gemcitabine in 2005 for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. In addition to lung cancer, ELB has shown promising results in the treatment of other cancers, including breast, prostate, colon, pancreatic, cervical, ovarian, and head and neck cancers. However, its limited water solubility, as a BCS class II drug, presents biopharmaceutical problems. Nanoformulations have been developed to overcome these issues, including increased solubility, controlled release, enhanced stability, tumor accumulation, reduced toxicity, and overcoming drug resistance. In older patients, ELB management should involve individualized dosing based on age-related changes in drug metabolism and close monitoring for adverse effects. Regular assessments of renal and hepatic functions are essential. This review provides an overview of ELB's role of ELB in treating various cancers, its associated biopharmaceutical issues, and the latest developments in ELB-related nanotechnology interventions. It also covers ELB patents granted in previous years and the ongoing clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of digital identity innovation has grown significantly over the last 30 years, with over 6000 technology patents registered worldwide. However, many questions remain about who controls and owns our digital identity and intellectual property and, ultimately, where the future of digital identity is heading. To investigate this further, this research mines digital identity patents and explores core themes such as identity, systems, privacy, security, and emerging fields like blockchain, financial transactions, and biometric technologies, utilizing natural language processing (NLP) methods including part-of-speech (POS) tagging, clustering, topic classification, noise reduction, and lemmatisation techniques. Finally, the research employs graph modelling and statistical analysis to discern inherent trends and forecast future developments. The findings significantly contribute to the digital identity landscape, identifying key players, emerging trends, and technological progress. This research serves as a valuable resource for academia and industry stakeholders, aiding in strategic decision-making and investment in emerging technologies and facilitating navigation through the dynamic realm of digital identity technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Microsponges are one of the advanced drug delivery systems that facilitates precise and controlled release of active ingredients that are suitable for topical and oral use. These porous microspheres are typically sized between 5 and 300 μm, offer benefits including controlled release, stability, and minimized side effects. Manufacturing techniques like quasi-emulsion solvent diffusion and liquid–liquid suspension polymerization are usually employed to prepare microsponges, although various challenges arise from the use of potentially hazardous organic solvents. Main body: Microsponges possess distinct traits such as extended drug release, formulation flexibility, and high drug loading capacity. Entrapment of drugs requires considerations of solubility, stability, and miscibility, while evaluation methods encompass production yield and particle size analysis. Their applications range from dermatological to biopharmaceutical delivery, with diverse products utilizing this technology. Ongoing innovations about microsponges are evident in patents concerning medical dressings and hyaluronic acid delivery systems. Conclusion: Microsponges present a promising avenue in drug delivery, despite many challenges. Current review addresses on limitations and diverse products highlighting commercial viability. Patent activity signifies continued interest, suggesting significant potential for enhancing patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The joint extraction task aims to construct an entity-relation triple comprising two entities and the relation between them. Existing joint models make it difficult to process too many overlapping relations in Chinese patent texts (CPT). This article introduces a joint entity and relation extraction model based on directed-relation graph attention network (DGAT) oriented to CPT to locate this problem. First, word-character tokens are obtained from CPT using BERT as the DGAT model input. Global tokens are expanded using the BiLSTM network to enhance contextual connection from the model input. Second, the DGAT model encodes the global tokens as a fully connected graph whose nodes represent the global tokens and edges denote the relations between global tokens. The edges with directed relation in the fully connected graph are assigned weights by the DGAT model, and other edges are pruned, resulting in a directed-relation-connected graph. Finally, the entity-relation triples are decoded using conditional random fields (CRF) from the directed relation-connected graph. Experimental results show that the proposed model was highly accurate based on the CPT dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inventive property rights (IPR) issues became very important after the announcement of the metaverse. As in the metaverse, the traditional laws of IPR are applicable, and research on new laws that are dedicated to the metaverse has started. In this research paper, we analyze development in this area. We use the Scopus database to examine how metaverse entrepreneurship and IPR rights have evolved over time. We used different parameters such as collaboration index, citation analysis, and keyword co-occurrences to measure the growth in the respective area. This study's results support the idea that studies examining this issue have been mushrooming in recent years. In addition, new issues and areas of study on intellectual property rights have emerged due to the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the comprehensive previous research on different aspects of inventions and externalities spanning both the micro- and macrolevels, no prior studies have, to our knowledge, examined the relationship between the commercialization strategies of inventions/patents and social knowledge spillovers. To bridge this gap in the literature, we examine how such spillovers, measured as forward citations, covary with four commercialization modes: (1) setting up a new firm, (2) commercialization within an existing firm where the inventor either is employed or (3) has an ownership stake, and (4) licensing/selling patents to other firms. Alternatively, an inventor may refrain from commercialization. Utilizing unique survey data on patents owned by small- and medium-sized enterprises and individuals, we provide evidence that commercialization through licensing/selling is the most efficient way of generating knowledge diffusion. We also find some support for new ventures being an important source of knowledge spillovers. Plain English Summary: New inventions and discoveries, here defined as patents, are instrumental in promoting growth and increasing societal prosperity. To contribute to a benevolent development of societies, it is imperative that new findings and new knowledge also is disseminated to a large group of users and producers. We investigate how such diffusion is affected by the chosen strategy to commercialize patents: through a new firm, within an existing firm, or licensing/selling patents to other firms. We provide evidence that commercialization through licensing/selling, closely followed by setting up a new firm, appears to be the most efficient way to generate knowledge diffusion. Policymakers should therefore not only support technological development and encourage new firms but also facilitate for firms to interact and enhance their networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study offers a comprehensive framework for evaluating the moderating effects of size and age on the relationship between family ownership and innovation. The research hypotheses are tested on a large sample of Italian firms observed over the 2010–2017 period using a zero-inflated nonlinear count model. To refine the understanding of firm heterogeneity, we employ a three-way interaction approach. Results show that the patenting gap between FFs and non-FFs is sensitive to size and age. Compared to non-FFs, FFs underperform when they are small and young, or large and mature, with no substantial differences seen in other types of firms. By referring to the Socioemotional Wealth theory, we find that the founder effect, which differs over a firm's life, is behind a good deal of these findings. Plain English Summary: This study explore how and why firm size and age moderate the relationship between family ownership and innovation. Departing from an assessment of the individual roles of firm size (as a proxy of availability of resources) and age (as a proxy of experience and generational stage), the findings indicate that there is a hybrid typology of FFs which is most conducive to innovate. It results from specific combinations of size and age. In particular, for young firms, the gap between family and non-family firms decreases as size increases. The beneficial aspects of family leadership related to the founder's learning process may balance the more complex competencies associated with larger firms. For subsequent generations of owners, increasing size can become a critical factor. As the resources and number of both family and nonfamily employees tend to grow as firm size increases, negative attributes of family firms in terms of family opportunism could dominate. These findings cast doubt on the perceived negative influence of family ownership and shed additional light on the distinctive traits of family firms by extending the understanding of how specific attributes enable family firms to benefit from innovative activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Editorial introduces a Special Issue that aims to develop a more insightful understanding of the processes and mechanisms that initiate and drive local interactions between science and innovation activities in the economy. The contributions primarily extend this line of inquiry, which is highly relevant in the context of regional Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) policy initiatives in two directions: 1) by taking advantage of increasingly available and previously understudied data on scientific and technical knowledge production, and the intrinsic connections thereof; and 2) by examining intra-regional collaboration patters, a topic that recently has gained prominence in regional innovation studies, via a more inclusive perspective that includes the different actors who are involved in these processes into the investigative framework. The Editorial also provides an outlook towards future policy opportunities and possible research directions in this field of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spatial concentration of knowledge production leads to increased regional inequality, but technology flows have the potential to improve the distribution of innovation. This study examines the role of technology flows in regional specialization at the technology level in China during 2005–2016 using patent data. To unpack technology flows, we distinguish three directions based on patent transactions: trickle-down, proximity and siphon. Results show that regions are more likely to specialize in technological activities, which exhibit a greater number of external linkages characterized by relatively low relatedness and a limited number of strong links. Access to external technological linkages is identified as a key pathway for less innovative regions to achieve place breakthroughs. The technology flows of trickle-down help less innovative regions specialize in more complex technologies than their local knowledge base, while siphon does not significantly impact place breakthroughs in innovative regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyse the role of international patent collaborations in the performance of domestic firms and how the relationship is augmented by the pre-existing capabilities of the domestic firms. Using data on Indian firms, we study patterns of co-invention by Indian firms and foreign partners. The results confirm the crucial role played by the absorptive capacity of domestic firms in enhancing benefits from patent collaborations. Strikingly, we find that the coefficient associated to foreign collaboration has a positive effect on performance only when complemented with previous innovative capabilities. The evidence we present in this work contributes to existing knowledge on the microeconomics behind the process of technological capability accumulation and catching up in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green technology transfer can help narrow the regional differences in green innovation, thereby contributing to a more coordinated green development. This study uses the social network analysis approach to explore the characteristics and regional differences in green technology diffusion in mainland China from 1985 to 2021. A unique dataset of patent transactions was used to construct green technology transfer networks. The findings demonstrate that energy-related technologies had the highest demand in the market. In addition, private sectors, especially multinational enterprises, were the most active network entities, whereas universities played a limited role in diffusion. Moreover, green patent transactions were highly localized and presented regional disparities. Resource-based regions with high pollution had lower green technology flows and formed a path dependence, whereas a few developed regions served as influential spreaders. The network exhibited a core-periphery pattern and dis-assortativity, thus creating a Matthew effect and widening the regional gaps. The absorbers and beginners tended to form connections with bilateral spillover, while peripheral provinces faced delinked risks. These findings help us understand the regional disparities and diffusion patterns of green technologies in China, thus accelerating the diffusion of green technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on four research hypotheses, this paper investigates whether and how the propensity for innovation of a territory depends on (i) agglomeration externalities (specialisation vs. diversification); (ii) the interaction between skills complementarity (overlapped, unlinked, connected skills) and agglomeration externalities; (iii) inter-regional workers' mobility; (iv) workers' mobility in both intra- and inter-regional flows. Although these factors have been explored from a one-by-one perspective, there is little evidence of their joint actions on a location's propensity for innovation. To propose new insights into how these factors work together, we perform the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) using data on Italian provinces from official sources. The SDMs are estimated globally on all the Italian provinces and separately on the two macro-areas of northern and southern provinces to compare the effects of intra- and inter-regional workers' mobility on innovation. The results can be summarised as follows: (i) specialisation plays a more decisive role in fostering innovation than diversification; (ii) the interaction between skills complementarity and specialisation has a strong impact on innovation activities; (iii) the contribution to the innovation of workers' mobility with overlapped skills is greater when the mobility occurs between provinces of the same macro-area; (iv) geographical proximity improves the territory's ability to absorb the related skills regardless of its productive structure. The provided evidence may help policymakers with the appropriate information to foster innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a sizable body of research concerning innovation and intellectual property (IP) performance exists, there has been limited attention on whether the state of IP strengthens or curtails innovation activity in the global south, specifically among sub-Saharan Africa firms. This article analyzes the direct impacts of IP on innovation performance in sub-Saharan Africa, namely patents, copyrights, industrial designs, and trademarks. The paper responds to firms extracting value from intellectual property strategies through innovation activities and overall performance. Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) and Innovation Follow-up Survey (IFS), we find that appropriation channels are essential for transforming innovation pursuits into a competitive advantage. Our results further reinforce that appropriation mechanisms are crucial to innovation and may allow firms to gain returns on their innovation activities. Regardless of the weaknesses and limitations of the patenting strategy in sub-Saharan Africa, the probability of patenting an innovation relates to a process and product innovation while controlling for several other effects. More importantly, we demonstrate how industrial designs and improved or changed trademarks can foster inclusive performance. In addition, we show that beyond perception-based innovations, intellectual property strategies also matter to innovation intensity and sales growth. Consequently, our results indicate that the significance of innovation for competitiveness puts intellectual capital at the critical juncture of knowledge management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The study aims to evaluate the usefulness of preoperative ultrasonography (US) at the internal inguinal ring level in predicting contralateral patent processus vaginalis (CPPV). Methods: This is a prospective study of patients who presented with unilateral inguinal hernia and underwent laparoscopic hernia repair and contralateral side exploration. The gender, age, initial presenting side, and the preoperative width of the low echoic region at the internal ring (WLIR) of the contralateral side that was determined using US and laparoscopic findings were recorded. The preoperative diagnosis of CPPV was considered if the WLIR is > 4 mm. We compared laparoscopic with US findings. Results: This study included 30 patients with a median age of 3.5 years (range, 25 days to 10 years), with 3 females and 27 males. The preoperative US and laparoscopic diagnoses of the contralateral side were concordant in 19 (63.3%) and discordant in 11 (36.6%) patients. US showed a sensitivity of 50.00%, specificity of 72.22%, and accuracy of 63.3% in diagnosing CPPV. Conclusions: Measuring the WLIR by US was inadequate for an accurate CPPV diagnosis in our study. Therefore, more distinctive US criteria are required for a proper CPPV diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts and contradictions within the legal system may affect the effectiveness of law enforcement, but scholars have not conducted sufficient empirical research on the mechanism. Based on three periods of mixed cross-sectional data in 2015 and 2019 when the reform of patent transaction system in colleges and universities, which represents a quasi-natural experiment, has been carried out, this study adopted a difference-in-difference (DID) model to empirically analyze the efficiency of patent transactions. It was found that if the lower level system was not removed or revised in time when the higher level law had been revised, it would have a blocking effect on the implementation of the higher level law and thus make patent transaction less efficient. Furthermore, when the lower level system was revised accordingly, it would have a transmission effect on the implementation of the higher level law, which could promote its implementation. This basic conclusion remains valid after a series of robustness tests and can provide useful lessons for the systemic revision and organizing of laws, as well as the reform of the economic and social systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthetic sunscreen offers protection against excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun, and protects the skin from possible damage. However, they have low efficacy against the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are highly reactive molecules that can be generated in the skin when it is exposed to UV radiation, and are known to play a role in oxidative stress, which can contribute to skin aging and damage. Thus, there is an ongoing search for sunscreens that do not have these negative effects. One promising source for these is natural products. Therefore, the current patent review summarizes topical formulations made from natural compounds that have antioxidant properties and can be used as photoprotective or anti-aging agents, either using a single natural extract or a combination of extracts. The review reports basic patent information (applicant country, type of applicant, and year of filing) and gives details about the invention, including its chemical composition, and the in vitro and in vivo tests performed. These patents describe natural products that can be used to protect the skin and validate their efficacy, and safety, in addition to standardizing their formulations. The compositions described illustrate the consistent innovation in the use of natural products to protect against UV damage and photoaging disorders, a promising field which is receiving growing global recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the dynamic effects of patent pools in the optical disc (DVD) industry, while considering the inter-generational competition between standards. We examine their patent-pool effects on innovation in terms of patenting performance for the 2nd-generation (SG) standard (BD/HDDVD) as well as for the 1st-generation (FG) standard (DVD), with the use of firm-level panel data. Our major findings are as follows: First, the formation of the FG pools led to significantly more SG innovations by the pool licensors relative to the licensees. Second, the FG pools also led to more FG innovations by the pool licensees relative to the nonparticipants with comparable innovation capabilities, which suggests the procompetitive effects of the pools. Third, the licensors had significant innovations for the FG, starting in the pre-standard period. Thus, the patent pool appears to have positive dynamic effects, which thereby complemented the standards for the DVD pools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social impact assessment (SIA) is considered by the literature to be as important as the assessment of economic impacts, as it allows decision-makers to anticipate the possible social consequences of proposed projects. However, to guide the technology selection process in the context of biorefineries, the evaluation models mostly consider technical, economic, and environmental indicators. The objective of the research is to propose a multicriteria decision model to evaluate the social impact of bioconversion technologies in small- and medium-sized biorefineries. Three phases were considered: (1) technological prospecting, which identified eight bioconversion technologies; (2) application of the SODA method (Strategic Options Development and Analysis), which identified nine basic social criteria; and (3) the PROMETHEE-ROC method, which used the structured model to identify the most appropriate bioconversion technology, considering aspects related to SIA. From a theoretical point of view, the proposed model is the only one to consider in depth the social dimension in decision-making on the adoption of bioconversion technologies. From a managerial point of view, the proposed model allows for optimizing the investment decision process in technologies in the context of small- and medium-sized biorefineries. The results point to the existence of a lack of research aimed at investigating the social aspects of small- and medium-sized biorefineries, which use different technological routes for the production of multiproducts. In addition, the technologies of hydrodynamic cavitation and heterogeneous catalysis are presented as those that can positively impact social issues in territories and consequently generate new business opportunities and healthy living. It is concluded that the absence of an updated and efficient national policy for the development of technologies oriented to the use of biomass, which aim to promote positive social impacts, has caused the impoverishment of communities as well as a proliferation of work analogous to slavery in the different regions of the country. Therefore, the proposed model can be used by decision-makers to simplify the process of evaluating technologies to be used for the bioconversion of raw materials into several high-added-value products in small- and medium-sized biorefineries, as well as to support the implementation of strategies that favor the technological and human development of communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is most common in women and most difficult to manage that causes highest mortality and morbidity among all diseases and posing significant threat to mankind as well as burden on healthcare system. In 2020, 2.3 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer and it was responsible for 685,000 deaths globally, suggesting the severity of this disease. Apart from that, relapsing of cases and resistance among available anticancer drugs along with associated side effects making the situation even worse. Therefore, it is a global emergency to develop potent and safer antibreast cancer agents. Isatin is most versatile and flying one nucleus which is an integral competent and various anticancer agent in clinical practice and widely used by various research groups around the globe for development of novel, potent, and safer antibreast cancer agents. This review will shed light on the structural insights and antiproliferative potential of various isatin-based derivatives developed for targeting breast cancer in last three decades that will help researchers in design and development of novel, potent, and safer isatin-based antibreast cancer agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although fostering innovativeness has long been one of the most important concerns for marketing theory and practice, CEOs continue to identify the lack of an innovation culture as one of the main obstacles they must overcome. Corporate culture permeates from the top of the corporate hierarchy. Therefore, the role of the corporate board can be critical for nurturing an innovation culture and thus stimulating innovativeness inputs. As marketing training and orientation emphasize innovation to create customer value and drive growth, marketing-experienced board members (MEBMs) can be particularly instrumental in fostering innovativeness inputs through their direction and counseling. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate whether the marketing expertise and information brought by MEBMs contribute to firm innovativeness inputs. Furthermore, based on the governance literature, we identify three specific CEO job characteristics that influence a CEO's information processing capacity and ability to implement strategies based on that information, thus enhancing MEBMs' effectiveness in fostering innovativeness. Analysis of a large representative dataset reveals that marketing expertise brought by MEBMs increases firm innovativeness inputs and that CEO risk-taking incentives, insider CEO, and CEO duality enhance MEBMs' effectiveness in fostering innovativeness inputs. The results highlight the value of having marketers on the corporate board and the importance of their counsel to CEOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of patents increases quickly, while more and more low-quality patents are emerging. It's important to identify high-quality patents from massive data quickly and accurately for organizational R&D decision-making and patent layout. However, due to low percentage of high-quality patents, it is challenging to identify them efficiently. In order to solve above problem, we reconstruct the existing index system for identifying high-quality patents by adding 4 features from technological strength of patentees. Furthermore, we propose an improved model by integrating resampling technique and ensemble learning algorithm. First, generative adversarial networks (GAN) are used to expand minority samples. Second, Extreme Gradient Boosting algorithm (XGBoost) with Bayesian optimization (BO) is used to identify high-quality patents. For clarity, this model is called a GAN-BO-XGBoost model. To test the effectiveness of above model, we use patent data in field of lithography technology. Tenfold cross-validation is carried out to evaluate the performance between our proposed model and other models. The results show that GAN-BO-XGBoost model performs better and it's more stable than other models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer remains one of the primary factors leading to premature death in humans. Conventional therapeutic approaches result in significant harm to normal tissue cells and impede the effective treatment of cancer. In recent years, the benefits of inorganic nanomaterials in cancer research have become increasingly evident, and they are expected to provide new ideas for diagnosing and treating cancer. This study aims to reveal the technological trajectory and important applications of inorganic nanomaterials in cancer diagnosis and treatment better to understand their technological development trends and technical priorities. A patent citation network was constructed to find the milestone patents of inorganic nanomaterials in the field of cancer by main path–derived path analysis, and a citation analysis method based on the PageRank (PR) algorithm was used to identify the high PR value patents of inorganic nanotechnology in cancer. The study found that the overall technological development trajectory of inorganic nanomaterials in cancer is linear, with a focus on enhancing technical aspects such as biological detection and imaging, drug delivery, phototherapy, magnetic hyperthermia, and radiotherapy, progressively enhancing the diagnostic and therapeutic effects, and realizing the integration of diagnosis and treatment. Gold nanomaterials are essential in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Carbon-based nanomaterials, magnetic nanomaterials, upconversion luminescent materials, copper-based nanoparticles, quantum dots, and other inorganic nanomaterials will become significant R&D directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable intensification (SI) responds to the concurrent challenges of increasing food production while reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture. As an early disclosure of innovation, patents are a useful indicator of technology market potential. However, we lack understanding of the extent to which current agricultural technology patents relate to the goals of SI and which kinds of technologies can potentially address SI. Here, we analyzed the diffusion and focus of more than one million patents issued during the period 1970–2022. We explored the degree to which the patents relate to SI through the co-occurrence of efficiency and environmental friendliness targets. Our results reveal that while the rate of patent issuance has dramatically increased over the past five decades, the rate at which patents diffused to different countries had decreased over time. The USA was the biggest net exporter of patents and had produced by far the most high-impact patents (in the top 1% most-cited patents). Since 1970, only 4% of agricultural patents and 6% of high-impact patents were related to SI targets (i.e., promoting both agricultural efficiency and environmental friendliness), but the attention to SI has increased over time. The most highly cited SI-related patents had become more diverse over time, shifting from digital, machine, and energy technologies in 1980s to the current era of agroecology, information, and computer networking. Our results provide an early indication of promising technologies that may play a greater role for SI in the future, subject to the challenges of market transfer and farm adoption and complemented by non-technological innovations in farm management and institutional support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Any chiral drug, when prepared using a chemical synthesis method, is usually obtained as a 50:50 racemic mixture of R and S enantiomers. Irrespective of whether the R or S enantiomer is the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), a drug is more often marketed in its racemic form. Drug developers state a number of reasons for the racemate to be approved by regulatory agencies such as Investigational New Drug Application (INDA). The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA, which is the most prominent regulatory agency in the world) does not insist on a new drug being marketed as a racemic mixture or as a single enantiomer as long as its safety, efficacy and risk–benefit analyses have been thoroughly carried out by the manufacturer. In view of the huge costs involved in drug development, manufacturers use patent protection as a tool to recover the costs. In most cases, patent extension is also resorted to, but it is a serious issue involving techno-legal issues and competition from generic companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the classification system from the European Patent Office (EPO), we identify almost 600,000 patent applications for fourth industrial revolution technologies from 1986 to 2015. We contribute to the economic literature by seeking to answer two research questions: (1) What is the effect of legal breath (and other indicators) on the quality of innovations in the fourth industrial revolution, (2) How does the IP culture (utilitarism vs. natural law) explain these differences? We find that the legal breadth of a patent positively affects the quality of innovations in the fourth industrial revolution. Interestingly, this impact of legal breadth may be driven by historical path dependencies and ways in which the two philosophical schools (utilitarism vs. natural law) have shaped the patent system in Anglo-Saxon countries versus continental Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open Source Software (OSS) has become an increasingly important knowledge asset in modern economies. However, the economic impact of OSS on countries' GDP is ambivalent due to its public good character. Using a cross-country panel from 2000 to 2018, including 25 of the largest EU countries plus the USA, Japan, Korea, Canada, China, Norway, and Switzerland, matching OSS commits to GitHub to macroeconomic data provided by the OECD, our results confirm the dual nature of OSS. On the one hand, the open-access character creates great learning potential by providing a commonly accessible productive resource for all countries. On the other hand, it creates outward-directed spillovers associated with own OSS contributions. Accordingly, on average, we find that countries experience an increase in GDP when the world stock of OSS grows. However, smaller countries experience a decline in GDP resulting from their own contributions due to knowledge spillovers. The net effect is nonetheless positive. If no country contributed to OSS development, GDP for the average country would be 2.2% lower in the long run. Moreover, the losses associated with unintended spillovers are lower for countries with a higher R&D and patenting intensity. Based on our findings, we derive implications for policies and regulations concerning OSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics of basic and applied research at university and industry have steadily changed since the Eighties, with the private sector reducing its investments in science and universities experiencing significant remodelling in the governance of their funding. While studies have focussed on documenting these changes in industry, less attention has been paid to observe the trajectories of basic and applied research in universities. This work contributes to fill this gap by looking at the evolution of publicly funded research that has been patented by universities between 1978 and 2015. First, we adopt a critical perspective of the basic versus applied dichotomy and identify patents according to three typologies of research: basic, mission-oriented, and applied research. Second, we describe the evolution of these three typologies in universities compared to industry. Our results show that over the years, patents from academic research that was publicly funded have become more oriented towards pure basic research, with mission-oriented basic research and pure applied research decreasing from the late 1990s. These results complement and extend the literature on basic and applied research dynamics in the private sector. By introducing mission-oriented research as a type of basic research with consideration of use, the work problematises the basic and applied research dichotomy and provides insights into the evolution of academic research focus, offering a more complex picture of how university research contributes to industry and broader social value creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pharmaceutical firms are extremely selective in deciding which patented drug candidates are taken up into clinical development, given the high costs and risks involved. We argue that the scientific base of drug candidates, and who was responsible for that scientific research, are key antecedents of take-up into clinical trials and whether the patent owner ('internal take-up') or another firm ('external take-up') leads the clinical development effort. We hypothesize that patented drug candidates that refer to scientific research are more likely to be taken up in development, and that in-house conducted scientific research is predominantly associated with internal take-up due to the ease of knowledge transfer within the firm. Examining 18,360 drug candidates patented by 136 pharmaceutical firms we find support for these hypotheses. In addition, drug candidates referring to in-house scientific research exhibit a higher probability of eventual drug development success. Our findings underline the importance of a 'rational drug design' approach that explicitly builds on scientific research. The benefits of internal scientific research in clinical development highlight the potential downside of pervasive organizational specialization in the life sciences in either scientific research or clinical development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Objective: The aim of this review is to analyze the patent filings and to systematize the main technological trends in patent protection for the diagnosis and therapeutics for endometriosis. Patent literature has also been explored to identify active inventors and applicants in this field. Methodology: Patent search was carried out in the freely accessible patent search databases namely, patentscope using various combinations of the keywords "Endometriosis OR Adenomyosis" AND "Diagnostic OR Therapeutics" were used along with wildcard search queries in the "Title", "Abstract" and "Descriptions" fields. Results: A patent search revealed 144 patents describing inventions for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes of endometriosis. These patents include 26 patent applications in the diagnostic utility and 116 patent applications under the therapeutic approaches. Out of these 116 patent applications, 43 describe traditional medicines for endometriosis. Two patent applications describe inventions that can fall into both categories. Conclusion: Efforts are being made to improve current diagnostic instruments. Hormonal alteration methods is the most common field of invention, followed by surgical interventions for therapeutics. A general trend of increase in patent application filings has been observed with a slight decrease in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New advancements in virtual reality-related technologies have led to an increased interest of scholars from elementary school to higher education in its use in education. Yet, the use of virtual reality in educational environments is still in its early stages of adoption. This study aims to analyze the global landscape of virtual reality-related technologies for educational purposes. We combined bibliometrics and network analysis to analyze 1242 patent records comprising these technologies, collected in the Derwent Innovations Index. We found a significant increase in annual patenting from 2016 onward, most carried out by Chinese corporate and academic organizations. The most frequent technologies comprise teaching/training simulators, specific business systems/methods, and user–computer interaction. In the network of international patent classification codes, the overall most central node refers to technologies for manipulating three-dimensional models or images for computer graphics. Our study provides insights into the global patent landscape related to virtual reality and education, and we hope it can be of interest to potential users in academic settings, as well as developers of related technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In civil-law countries, employers must pay a value-based 'reasonable remuneration' to employee inventors. When dissatisfied with the amount of compensation, employee inventors can ask for a review by an independent board or directly in court and claim additional remuneration. The study explores the existence of ex-ante indicators that would help distinguish inventors entitled to higher/lower additional compensation. We build on the patent quality framework and test the explanatory power of the ex-ante patent value indicator, the patent family size, on the additional rewards awarded to employee inventors. A novel dataset of court cases heard between 1981 and 2017 in three civil-law countries (Germany, France, and Japan) is used. Our findings indicate a consistently positive effect of both simple and GDP-weighted patent family indicators on the additional remuneration granted. The main finding is as follows: if the court grants positive additional compensation, we observe an average 68% increase in compensation when the number of countries covered by the patent doubles; alternatively, if the total GDP of the countries covered by the patent doubles, the compensation increases by app. 59%. These findings, along with others from the study, can be beneficial for R&D managers, intellectual property managers, and other executives, as well as innovative employees, in estimating the remuneration amount for employee inventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is a key driver of long-term economic growth and has significantly improved living standards. Corporate innovation efforts are at the forefront of this process. We propose a two-period career concern model to better understand the factors that influence a corporation's decision to undertake risky innovation. In this model, a corporation's manager is influenced by the company's corporate governance structure and the level of competition in the product market. Our research shows that strong corporate governance positively impacts a manager's decision to innovate due to career concerns. However, we also found that firms in industries with low competition benefit more from good governance than those in highly competitive industries. This conclusion is supported by our analysis of a panel data set from the 1990s, which contains information on time-varying patent citations in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the association between firm innovation and loan covenant strictness. We find that lenders construct stricter contracts for firms filing more patents, consistent with lenders imposing more oversight on firms when they enter the commercialization stage after having demonstrated their inventiveness. Our results hold under propensity score matching and entropy balancing, and when exploiting the American Inventors Protection Act as a shock affecting unrelated banks' access to patent filing information. The relationship we document is stronger when the lender has more expertise and for firms with higher default risk. We demonstrate that borrowers' patent filings are associated with more future R&D and capital investment and with a higher likelihood of their acquiring firms in the industry of their patent filings. Our results are consistent with the theoretical prediction that lenders interpret patent filings as indicative of high inventive potential that requires stricter discipline and oversight by lenders in order to be converted into actual business success, and with them designing debt contract terms accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological innovations and research and development (R&D) are known to have spillover effects on territorial growth and resilience. Therefore, analysing the relationship between technological innovations and R&D could provide significant contributions to policies and strategies for regional growth. Despite the importance of technological innovations and R&D to regional growth and resilience, fewer studies in transitional countries such as the Visegrad Four have focused on examining these relationships. This paper therefore specifically aims at simultaneously analysing the determinants influencing technological innovations and R&D in Visegrad countries by employing the bivariate probit model. The study also finds that foreign technologies, ICT technologies, external knowledge, membership of economic and business associations, and patents positively influence technological innovations and R&D. Contrary, we find that fiscal policies and corruption were not significant factors capable of driving technological innovations and R&D in these countries. Capital cities in these macroregions of Visegrad countries are likely to influence R&D activities. The main policy implication of the research is that policymakers in the Visegrad Group aiming to improve and sustain territorial innovations should consider forging extra-local linkages as well as investments in ICT technologies and intellectual property rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International trade has undergone rapid changes in the last decades. Eastern-European countries opened up and China joined the WTO. These and many other countries that initially played a minor role in international trade have now become major competitors of traditional industrial countries. This paper analyzes the impact of import competition on patent activities by Dutch manufacturing firms for the period 2000–2010. Using a combination of patent, firm, and trade data, we show that more intense import competition leads to a higher number of patent applications. It has also a positive influence on the number of forward citations and entry of new patents, and in firms entering new technology fields. In short, import competition fosters innovation. For firms only engaged in domestic innovation, this positive import competition effect is also confirmed. Whereas most studies only consider import competition from China and other emerging markets, we also take high-developed countries into account. We find that import competition from all high-wage countries as one region together has only an effect on the number of patents and patent quality. But there is no statistically significant influence from EU member states, China, or the group of countries in the rest of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) carries critical implications for local firms, especially in the context of emerging markets, such as China. Scholars typically suggest that IFDI benefits local firms' innovation through knowledge spillovers. Our study reveals a downside of such spillovers by articulating the negative influence of IFDI on local firms' tendencies towards invention patenting (vis-a-vis utility model patenting) within their overall patenting. We further identify two contingency effects to help substantiate the mechanisms underlying the negative effect of IFDI on local firms' invention patenting tendency. Using panel data on Chinese manufacturing firms during 2000–2010, we find that although industry-level IFDI intensity increases local firms' total patent applications, it decreases the proportion of invention patents within total applications. This negative effect of IFDI is amplified by industry technology orientation and industry competitive intensity. Our study offers more fine-grained insights into the linkage between IFDI and local innovation by illustrating how local firms balance different types of patents in response to IFDI spillovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovations in precision agriculture continue to increase in both number and significance. Contemporaneously, given their expanding scope and application, the growing pool of technologies is increasingly complex. Although some recent attempts have been made, a knowledge gap remains in respect to the evolution of precision agricultural innovation. Synthesized, such knowledge should inform the untapped opportunities for innovation. This paper narrows this gap by conducting a network analysis of patent applications in areas concerning precision agriculture. Spanning the years from 1960 to 2021, the analysis shows an annual average growth in patent applications of 15.1%. During the last decade, this growth is almost entirely attributable to China and the USA. Priority innovation themes have been dynamic. Its phases can be characterized as 'motorized mechanization' (1960–1999), 'mechanical automation' (2000–2009), 'digital mechanization' (2010–2019), and 'digital automation' (2020–2021). The significance of information communication technology has grown in association with other innovation clusters, but a lag time has persisted in introducing innovations based on such technologies. Opportunities are ripe for speeding transference through economic and other incentives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whey is well known to be nutritive and to provide significant nutritional value when included in foods. Therefore, trying to make this product even more valuable, in 1988, a patent was granted giving rise to microparticulated whey proteins (MWP). In that way, the present work aimed to review the literature on patents that develop and/or apply MWP in food production until December 2022. Keywords, such as "whey", "protein", and "microparticulated" were used in the search for patents in Espacenet (patents database of the European Patent Office—EPO). A total of 60 patents were reviewed in this study which include the MWP as a fat substitute; as an ingredient to improve texture, flavor, and viscosity, or as a stabilizer for food products, like yoghurt, cheese, salad dressings, and acidified drinks, among others. Of the 24 companies listed in this review, at least six have MWP products being marketed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patents are indicators of technological developments. The science & technology categories, to which they are assigned to, form a directed, weighted network where the links are the references between patents belonging to the respective categories. This network can be conceived as a kind of intellectual ecology, lending itself to mathematical analyses analogous to those carried out in numerical ecology. The non-metric Bray–Curtis dissimilarity, commonly used in quantitative ecology, can be used to describe the internal dynamics of this network. Results: While the degree-distribution of the network remained stable during the studied years, that of the sub-networks of with at least k links showed that k = 5 is a critical number of citations: this many are needed that the bias towards already highly cited works come into effect (preferential attachment). Using the dij Bay-Curtis dissimilarity between nodes i and j, a surprising pattern emerged: the log-probability of a change in dij during a quarter of year depended linearly, with a negative coefficient, on the magnitude of the change itself. Conclusions: The developed methodology could be useful to detect emerging technological developments, to aid decisions, for example, on resource allocation. The pattern found on the internal dynamics of the system depends on the categorisation of the patents, therefore it can serve as an indicator when comparing different categorisation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides new evidence on the effects of entry on incumbents' incentives to innovate by examining the rise of FinTech innovations over the period 2000-2016. We employ machine learning algorithms to classify a large sample of patent applications into five types of FinTech innovations. We then show that greater competition from innovators outside the financial sector increases the probability that incumbent financial firms will innovate. Our identification strategy exploits the variation over time in the share of FinTech patent applications by non-financial start-ups relative to incumbent financial firms, as a proxy for competitive pressures from outside the financial industry. We also find that this increased competition results in a higher number of FinTech patent applications by financial incumbents relative to non-financial ones, especially when the FinTech innovations are more important, as proxied by the number of their future patent citations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of environmental regulation on innovation and international competitiveness. We test the weak, narrow, and strong versions of Porter's hypotheses by looking at the impact of environmental regulation on exports both directly and indirectly through innovation and by introducing the role of pollution intensity in moderating the impact of stringent regulation on innovation and international competitiveness. Green policies are measured with the OECD Environmental Stringency Policy Index, distinguishing between market, non-market instruments, and technology support policies. Differently from previous papers, we adopt the technology gap approach to trade, which is suitable for relating environmental regulation to trade competitiveness and we apply the simultaneous-equation system econometric model with a moderating factor represented by pollution intensity. The results support the weak and strong versions of Porter's hypotheses and find that the positive impact of regulation on innovation and exports increases with a country's pollution intensity, suggesting that green policies, if properly coordinated, can represent a win–win strategy, fostering, at the same time, sustainability and international competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the implications of patent protection on growth and inequality under exogenous versus endogenous quality improvements. Our analysis shows that the effects of strengthening patent protection under an endogenous innovation size can be quite different from those under an exogenous innovation size. Under our calibrated parameter values, we find that strengthening patent protection promotes economic growth, raises income inequality, and decreases consumption inequality under exogenous quality improvements. However, in the case of endogenous quality improvements, strengthening patent protection generates an inverted-U effect on economic growth; both income inequality and consumption inequality decrease with the strength of patent protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vietnam is home to a prospering technology community and numerous enterprises that range from small start-ups to development giants. Virtually all public services are offered online. In fact, the country even has a system for e-residency and "data embassies." This achievement derives in part from the nation's transparent and enduring political preferences, but more importantly from Vietnamese law and its regulatory system regarding information, the digital general public, and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. In this examination of the most pertinent aspects of Vietnam's digital economy legislation, this study explores the nation's regulatory structure regarding copyright and patents within the context of digital transformation. The study discusses the relationship between foreign and national regulations in terms of IPR protection and the advancement of digitalization. Research on Vietnamese regulations and the practical application of major patent and copyright regulations has revealed that in many respects, the nation is highly reliant on the effective operation of a broader foreign institutional and legal framework. Thus, in the near future, technological advancement will necessitate the establishment of additional transnational regulatory systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, fossil fuels energy consumption (FE), home patents (HP), foreign patents (FP), foreign direct investment (FDI), and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in South Korea over the period 1980–2018 by employing the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. Results reveal that FE, HP, and GDP have positive impacts on CO2 emissions, while FP have a negative impact. Furthermore, FE and FP act positively on GDP, whereas HP and CO2 emissions act negatively on it. In addition, HP, FDI, and GDP have positive effects on FP, and FE harms FP. Granger causality findings reveal that in the long run there will be two-way causality between CO2 emissions, GDP, HP, and FE, while, in the short run, there is one-way causality running from HP, FE, and FP to GDP; from FP to HP; from HP and FP to FE, and from HP and FP to CO2 emissions. Since foreign patents enhance environmental quality and boost economic growth, the South Korean government should encourage the use of foreign patents and promote clean technology home patents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing compounds with novel structures is important for the production of new drugs. From an intellectual perspective, confirming the patent status of newly developed compounds is essential, particularly for pharmaceutical companies. The generation of a large number of compounds has been made possible because of the recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI). However, confirming the patent status of these generated molecules has been a challenge because there are no free and easy-to-use tools that can be used to determine the novelty of the generated compounds in terms of patents in a timely manner; additionally, there are no appropriate reference databases for pharmaceutical patents in the world. In this study, two public databases, SureChEMBL and Google Patents Public Datasets, were used to create a reference database of drug-related patented compounds using international patent classification. An exact structure search system was constructed using InChIKey and a relational database system to rapidly search for compounds in the reference database. Because drug-related patented compounds are a good source for generative AI to learn useful chemical structures, they were used as the training data. Furthermore, molecule generation was successfully directed by increasing and decreasing the number of generated patented compounds through incorporation of patent status (i.e., patented or not) into learning. The use of patent status enabled generation of novel molecules with high drug-likeness. The generation using generative AI with patent information would help efficiently propose novel compounds in terms of pharmaceutical patents. Scientific contribution: In this study, a new molecule-generation method that takes into account the patent status of molecules, which has rarely been considered but is an important feature in drug discovery, was developed. The method enables the generation of novel molecules based on pharmaceutical patents with high drug-likeness and will help in the efficient development of effective drug compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving sustainable development necessitates proactive measures to mitigate the economy's negative impact on environmental standards. A new empirical association between renewable energy patent innovation and net international trade on carbon emissions in ASEAN countries from 1990 to 2021 is presented, along with its significance. Using present panel data techniques, this study investigates the connections between these factors. Second-generation cointegration and unit root tests, as well as a novel method of Moments Quantile Regression, are used in the econometric procedure. Compared to standard quantile regression, this method is more resistant to outliers and provides an asymmetric relationship between the variables. The findings show that trade increases carbon emissions in countries with medium to high emissions, that patent innovation contributes to increasing emissions, and that renewable energy mitigates carbon emissions in countries with low to medium emerging economies. Our results are consistent with other specifications, including quantile regression canay (Canay 2011), fully modified, dynamic, and fixed effect regressions, proving the EKC hypothesis. These countries need to prioritize greener products and adopt advanced manufacturing technologies to reduce carbon emissions from consumption. However, as prosperity increases, it also leads to higher consumption-based carbon emissions, worsening ecological damage in the region. Implementing policies like trade synchronization and increasing investment in patent innovations are proposed in this study to lower the current level of carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]