Abstract
The patents of China in biotechnology in the United States Patent and Trademark Office during 1995–2008 have been analyzed in this paper with the help of bibliometrics and social network analysis techniques. The analysis has been carried out from several perspectives including total patent output of industries, universities and public research institutes (PRIs) and their positions in the knowledge network, the main innovators and their interactions, the collaboration among Chinese regions and the collaborations from abroad. The results show that though with some improvements, the patent performance of Chinese organizations and regions in biotechnology still need to be improved. The connections between Chinese innovators are not very cohesive and they depend heavily on foreign knowledge, especial knowledge from U.S. multinational firms and universities. The important innovators of China in this field are mainly PRIs and universities. More and stronger firm innovators, especially large and powerful multinational companies, are strongly needed for the nation’s biotechnology industry.
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Notes
Revealed technology advantage of country A in technology I is calculated by the share of I in A’s patents relative to the share of I in total patents. Patent counts are based on the priority data, the inventor’s country of residence and use fractional counts on PCT filings at international phase (EPO designations) (OECD 2008).
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Acknowledgments
This research is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project no. 70773006) and the National Social Science Foundation of China (Project no. 10zd&014).The authors are very grateful for the valuable comments and suggestions of the anonymous reviewers and Editor-in-Chief Prof. Braun, which significantly improved the article.
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Chen, Z., Guan, J. Mapping of biotechnology patents of China from 1995–2008. Scientometrics 88, 73–89 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0380-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0380-3