市场信号、技术特征与中国国际高质量专利

Market Signal,Technical Characteristics and the International High-quality Patents in China

近年来,中国专利申请量与授权量得到了快速飞跃,然而“专利泡沫”“专利沉睡”等问题也日益凸显,如何有效促进专利数量到专利质量的转变是实现专利强国的关键。本文基于信号传递理论,构建了市场信号与技术特征共同影响国际高质量专利形成的理论模型,并利用中国在美国专利与商标局(USPTO)申请的专利数据进行了实证检验。研究结果表明:市场信号有助于传递积极的专利信号与打破信息不对称,推动形成国际高质量专利;技术特征能够扩大专利自身的技术范围与技术合作空间,与国际高质量专利也存在显著正向关系;此外,技术特征能够产生技术噪音与技术竞争压力,弱化信号传递效率,从而负向调节市场信号对国际高质量专利的促进效应。本文认为与市场上的普通商品一样,专利存在“酒香也怕巷子深”问题,一方面企业应该加强专利国际推广;另一方面政府需要进一步完善市场机制与减弱信息不对称,共同塑造中国国际高质量专利。

In recent years,the number of patent applications and authorizations in China has rapidly leapfrogged.However,issues such as“patent bubble”and“sleeping patent”have become increasingly prominent.Under the background of the current constant trade frictions and property right disputes,how to effectively promote the transition from the number of patents to the quality of patents is the key to achieving an intellectual property powerful country.Based on signaling theory,this paper builds a theoretical model of market signals and technical characteristics that affect the formation of international high-quality patents,and with the help of the United States Patent and Trademark Office(UPSTO)the article conducts empirical tests.In particular,this paper adopts international patent assignment and marketization index to evaluate market signals,utilizes technology breadth and technology maturity to measure technical characteristics,and calculates the annual cited frequency to refer to international high-quality patents.Research results show that market signals are helpful to transmit positive patent signals and break information asymmetry,and further promote international high-quality patents;technical characteristics can expand the technical scope and technical cooperation,and also have a significant positive relationship with international high-quality patents;in addition,technical characteristics may generate technical noise,technical competition and pressure,weaken the quality and efficiency of signal transmission,thereby negatively moderate the positive effect of market signals on international high-quality patents.This article suggests that,like ordinary commodity on the market,patents also exist the issues of“wine is also afraid of deep alleys”,on one hand these enterprises should strengthen the international dissemination of patents,on the other hand the government needs to further improve the market mechanism and degrade information asymmetry,and jointly create Chinese international patent high-quality.Based on signaling theory,in the context of China's open innovation this research examines and validate that there exists a complementary and competitive relationship between market signals and technical characteristics for international high-quality patents.Our study offers the following contributions to the literature.First,this article pays attention to the annual cited frequency of Chinese patents in USPTO,and is beneficial for Chinese enterprises to better handle patent disputes,technology blockades,and patent barriers through strategically deploying overseas patents.Second,this paper analyzes patents quality from market signals and technical characteristics perspectives,verify that market signals and technical characteristics are both complementary and competitive,and thus manifest the importance and necessity of taking market factors into consideration.Third,this article adopts the patents data at a more micro-level to expand the existing literatures,and control more detailed patent-level variables.Also,there are promising avenues for further research related.Firstly,this article takes patents as research units to consider the differences in patent characteristics,and does not specifically take enterprise characteristics into consideration,such as firm scale,firm sales,etc.Secondly,from technology breadth and technology maturity perspectives this paper discusses that the technical characteristics have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between market signals and patent quality.However,due to the difficulty of measuring relevant indicators,other technology specifications are not considered.Thirdly,based on signaling theory,this paper mainly analyzes the influence of market and technology on the frequency of patent citations.It does not consider whether the market and technology have complementary and competitive effects on innovation performance,internationalization process,etc.