外国在华专利激增:市场占有还是绸缪竞争?

China's Foreign Patenting Surge,for Market Covering or Against Competitive Threat?

不少研究表明,外国在华专利申请激增很大程度上归因于专利法修订、知识产权保护力度加强以及外国投资和贸易活跃的共同作用。文章分别选取中国知识产权局、美国专利和商标局的专利数据(1995~2008年),借助19个国家和地区的行业层面数据检验市场占有假说和竞争威胁假说。研究发现,不同国家在中国市场上的竞争和专利申请上的跟随支持了竞争威胁假说,即在华专利申请取决于其竞争国家的市场和专利决策,是针对竞争对手的未雨绸缪。然而,从技术相似性角度的分析显示,外国在华专利申请的增加并不一定意味着中国接触、获取外源新技术的机会增加,相反,技术溢出程度有限。

Many researches show that China' s patent law amendment,strengthening of patent protection,expansion of FDI and trade have contributed to the increasing foreign patenting surge in China. Using a database at the industry level that comprises China's State Intellectual Property Office patents,the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office patents covering 19 counties and regions from1985 to 2008,we investigate the validity of the market covering and competitive threat hypotheses in explaining the increasing foreign propensity to patent in China. The results show strong support for the competitive threat hypothesis. However,the foreign patenting surge in China doesn't mean more access to outside advanced technology,on the contrary the technology spillover in China is limited when we focus on the analysis of technology proximity.