Irish academic patenting 1980 – 2012

Irish Academic Patenting 1980 – 2012

June 2012

Tony Owens

Draft Paper

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Study Objective and Research Questions

The objective of this piece of work was to analyse the commercial relevance of inventive R&D work undertaken by mainly state-funded Irish R&D performers. This was done by performing a moderately-detailed landscaping study on the patent output of Irish patent owners (assignees) known to be largely state-funded. The basis for this approach is the assumption that commercially-valuable and original discoveries tend to be patented. As far as is known, this study is the first ever quant/qual study of the commercially-relevant outputs of Ireland academic-led innovation system.

• What IP is patented by Irish academic inventors?

• Which institutions and inventors are prolific?

• What subject‐matter areas are popular?

• What trends are apparent?

• What collaborations are apparent?

• Which patent publications are highly cited?


Study Design and Data Processing

3

Search All patents assigned to Irish-registered assignees from Jan 1980 to May 2012

Aggregation Fulltext downloads from PatSeer & Espacenet/USPTO (for analytics)

Selection Organisation of patents into families based on common priority applications. Manual selection of all patent assignees known to be Irish State‐controlled research performers.

Cleanup Merged assignee name variants or mis‐spellings. Merged misspelt or variations of inventor names. Stripped some patents with no apparent Irish academic connections. Stripped and re‐downloaded some US patents with corrupt database entries. Manually redefined family root members based on existence of an EP patent if present, else a WO patent, else a GB patent, else an IE patent , else the earliest published family member

Analytics Fulltext word-mining using both user-defined and auto-generated taxonomies

Visualisation Simple stats and correlations, heatmaps, 2D maps

Notes The objective for some metrics is to identify unique invention records originating from inventors employed by the Irish State (i.e. count a single representative record for each patent family). For other metrics it is more appropriate to include complete patent families, which has been done


Disclaimers

1. Patent Landscaping is not a precise science

– Not all patent records included but representive sample of the inventive output of the sector under study

• may exclude some re‐assigned patents

• excludes patents related to ‘invention leakage’ from the institution or filed subsequently by leavers

2. Some ‘ultimate company’ names incorrect

3. Excludes data prior to 1980

4. Some missing data for C/Y 2003‐2004

5. Resident country status for academic inventors not always reliable

6. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not reflect the policy or position of affiliated companies, clients or colleagues. They should not be utilised in policy development as they are based on a limited data set and have not been subjected to peer review.

4


Activity Levels – No. of Patent Families

5


Priority Countries for Patent Families

6


Inventor Productivity - Published Inventions

7


Academic Assignee Timeline

8


What has Irish academic R&D been inventing?

9


Inventive Activity Summary (by Patent Assignee)

10

US

EP

WO

JP

DE

FR

CN

GB

CA

IE

1

TRINITY COLL

DUBLIN

427

(21.9%)

0.24

1979-

2011

FOSTER TIMOTHY J(34)

MILLS KINGSTON(30)

SHVETS IGOR(30)

KELLEHER DERMOT(30)

WALSH JAMES(18)

TEXAS A & M UNIV SYS(12)

N/ A(11)

INHIBITEX INC(9)

NAT UNIV IRELAND CORK(7)

HITACHI EUROP LTD(4)

58 108 127 1 18 0 6 10 49 79 15 4 25 3 0 17 6 0 4 4 0 0 5 11 0 0 5 0 0 4 0 0 0 2 0 0 4 2

2

NAT UNIV

IRELAND CORK

396

(20.3%)

0.18

1988-

2011

ROSS R PAUL(31)

O'MAHONY LIAM(27)

COLLINS JOHN KEVIN(26)

HILL COLIN(25)

MCCARTHY THOMAS

VALENTINE(23)

ENTPR IRELAND(41)

TEAGASC DAIRY PRODUCTS RES

CT(30)

BIORESEARCH IRELAND(9)

TRINITY COLL DUBLIN(7)

UNIV GENT(5)

38 96 108 0 20 0 7 3 18 75 21 11 2 10 3 11 3 16 14 14 14 6 8 4 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 10 3 0 0 9 21 0

3

NAT UNIV

IRELAND

GALWAY

272

(13.9%)

0.12

1989-

2011

BARRY THOMAS

GERARD(40)

SMITH TERENCE

JAMES(36)

MAHER MAJELLA(28)

SAMALI AFSHIN(22)

O'CONNOR LOUISE(21)

ENTPR IRELAND(16)

BIORESEARCH IRELAND(9)

UNIV GRONINGEN(9)

DEGUSSA-HULS

AKTIENGASELLSCHAFT(8)

INSTITUCIO CATALANA DE

RECERCA(7)

67 80 74 0 10 0 5 3 20 35 38 6 1 15 9 0 0 1 0 0 2 7 0 0 19 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 3 6

4

UNIV COLL

DUBLIN (NUI

DUBLIN)

229

(11.7%)

0.72

1989-

2011

REGAN CIARAN M(24)

SMYTH BARRY JOSEPH(16)

DARCY RAPHAEL(13)

HENEGHAN CONOR(12)

FITZMAURICE DONALD(12)

AMERICAN BIOGENETIC

SCIENCES(14)

BIO MEDICAL RES LTD(5)

NAT DIGITAL RES CT(4)

RWTH AACHEN(4)

TRINITY COLL DUBLIN(4)

40 55 78 0 10 0 7 2 11 17 5 12 1 0 1 0 8 0 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0

5

UNIV DUBLIN

CITY

194

(9.9%)

0

1997-

2011

MACCRAITH BRIAN(23)

ELLINGBOE ALBERT

ROGERS(15)

MURPHY NOEL(14)

CLYNES MARTIN(14)

KILLARD ANTHONY

JOSEPH(13)

SIEMENS PLC(5)

YORKSHIRE WATER SERVICES

LTD(5)

AAMIC AB(4)

ROYAL COLL SURGEONS IE(4)

ENTPR IRELAND(3)

26 45 68 0 7 0 5 29 7 20 2 8 0 0 12 0 8 0 4 0 0 1 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 0

6

UNIV LIMERICK

84 (4.3%)

0

2000-

2011

GRIMES RONAN(8)

WALSH EDMOND(8)

CONWAY THOMAS J(8)

MCGLOUGHLIN TIMOTHY

M(7)

WALSH MICHAEL(7)

DUB INST OF TECH(3)

EUROP ECONOMIC

COMMUNITY(3)

COOK INC(2)

EIRECOMPOSITES TEORANTA(2)

LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC(2)

10 18 27 0 2 0 0 1 0 28 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

7

TEAGASC DAIRY

PRODUCTS RES

CT

78 (4%)

0

1994-

2010

ROSS R PAUL(54)

STANTON CATHERINE

GERARDINE(29)

HILL COLIN(27)

FITZGERALD GER(11)

ZELDER OSKAR(11)


ENTPR IRELAND(5)

ALIMENTARY HEALTH LTD(4)

CORK INST OF TECHNOLOGY(2)

CALLAGHAN DONAL J O(1)

4 11 12 0 4 0 1 0 2 6 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 2 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

8

INST FOR IND

RES &

STANDARDS

68 (3.5%)

0

1976-

1990

ANDERSON FRANCIS

JOSEPH(7)

MCLOUGHLIN THOMAS

PATRICK(5)

CARROLL FRANCIS

ALFRED(5)

HOARY MARTO JOSEPH(4)

No Co-Assignee Present

3 4 0 0 3 2 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

9

ENTPR IRELAND

66 (3.4%)

0.09

1989-

2004

COLLINS JOHN KEVIN(30)

O'SULLIVAN GERALD

CHRISTOPHER(27)

O'MAHONY LIAM(23)

SHANAHAN FERGUS(18)

BARRY THOMAS

GERARD(12)


NAT UNIV IRELAND GALWAY(16)

TEAGASC DAIRY PRODUCTS RES

CT(5)

UNIV DUBLIN CITY(3)

INNOGENETICS N.V.(1)

6 14 7 0 10 0 4 0 8 3 14 0 2 8 0 6 0 13 0 4 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 0

10

DUB INST OF

TECH

65 (3.3%)

0

1995-

2010

MARTIN SUZANNE(18)

TOAL VINCENT(18)

NAYDENOVA IZABELA(14)

COYLE EUGENE(7)

ETACHERI VINODKUMAR(7)

MINMET PLC DUBLIN(5)

RIO TINTO TECHNOLOGY DEV

LTD(5)

EUROP ECONOMIC

COMMUNITY(3)

UNIV LIMERICK(3)

NAT UNIV IRELAND MAYN(2)

5 18 21 0 3 0 0 11 1 6 0 1 0 0 3 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0

11

ROYAL COLL

SURGEONS IE

64 (3.3%)

0

2000-

2010

RAMTOOLA

ZEBUNNISSA(12)

KENNY DERMOT(11)

KELLY JOHN(7)

PABARI RITESH(7)

GREENWAY MATT(6)

UNIV DUBLIN CITY(4)

NAT UNIV IRELAND MAYN(1)

14 23 26 0 1 0 0 0 8 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0

12

NAT UNIV

IRELAND MAYN

50 (2.6%)

0

1995-

2010

FARRELL RONAN(6)

LOWRY JOHN(6)

MAHON BERNARD(6)

SHORTEN ROBERT(5)

Leith Douglas(4)

INST NAT SANTE RECH MED(4)

PASTEUR INSTITUT(4)

DUB INST OF TECH(2)

COLD SPRING HARBOR LAB(1)

ROYAL COLL SURGEONS IE(1)

11 12 21 0 1 0 1 0 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

# Assignee

Total No.

of

Records

Avera

ge

No.of

Fwd

Cites

per

Paten

ts

Filing Trend

( Cumulative )

No. of Filings in last 5

yrs vs Average of Top

20 Assignees

Filing

Year

Range

Key Inventor

(Top 5)Co-Assignees

Coverage

(Includes families)

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Top 20 Word‐mined Clusters

11

Map of the most popular subject-matter of Irish state-funded inventions (fulltext word-mining and classification taxonomy).

Each bubble = single patent family (invention) Size of bubble number of forward citations. Intensity of bubble recency of patent


Invention Portfolios of Irish State R&D Performers

12 Map of Portfolio's of Patent Families assigned to Irish state-funded R&D performers.

Each bubble = single patent family (invention) Size of bubble number of forward citations. Intensity of bubble recency of patent


Collaborations between Invention Portfolio Owners

13

Nodes represent invention assignees. Lines between nodes co-cited invention assignees. No. of co-assigned inventions enumerated in red.


Observations

1. Irish academic patenting is a relatively recent thing – negligible activity pre Noughties (except TCD)

2. The inventions have low levels of forward citation (cites from more recently filed patents) particularly after adjustment for self-citation. In marked contrast to publication citation performance, only one ‘landmark’ patent was identified (US6870657; Electrochromic device, to UCD).

3. Patenting was almost exclusively focused on four areas until post 2006; of which only two (Photonics and Microbiology/Probiotic Foods) were realistically capable of commercialisation by Irish indigenous firms.

4. A striking bias towards science and against engineering/technology is apparent. Almost all prolific inventors are bioscientists.

5. Collaborations as evidenced by patent co‐assignment are primarily with other academic research performers. There is little evidence of significant/consistent engagement with commercial businesses.

6. There is evidence of changing policy in the recent arrival of engineering/technology‐led patenting by the ‘IT’s’ – in particular DIT, WIT and SOIT

14


Tentative Conclusions

1. The low level of forward citations (after adjustment for self-citation) raise serious questions about the commercial relevance of previous academic RDI activities.

2. The striking bias towards science and against technology and engineering apparent in previous patenting severely limits scope for engagement with industry and with SME’s in particular.

3. The leading funder of Irish academic R&D is SFI which funds four thematic areas: nanotech, biotech, ICT and renewable technology. Despite this, only one of these funding areas, biotech, has generated significant patent output.

4. In the aggregate, patenting is a leading indicator of commercialisation. The continued lack of significant and consistent co‐citation with industrial collaborators strongly suggests that the history of failure of the largest Irish academic RDI providers to deliver commercially‐relevant outputs will continue.

5. The rise of patenting in certain of the ‘IT’s’ (WIT, DIT, SOIT) which tend to be more engaged with Irish companies is a positive development.

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Technology

Irish academic patenting 1980 – 2012