A Study On The "Alienation" Behavior Of Enterprise Patent Application

With the advance of knowledge economy,intellectual property rights with patents as the core elements have been regarded by various countries as one of the most important intellectual assets and strategic means to maintain sustainable innovation ability and participate in international competition.Patent has gradually become an important symbol to measure the comprehensive strength and sustainable development of enterprises,as well as the protection of initiative and development priority.As a result,a “wave of patent applications” swept the world,and the “wave of patent applications” first appeared in the United States,Japan and European countries,followed by a jump in patent applications in emerging developing countries,especially in China.Since 2011,when the number of patent applications exceeded that of the United States,China has ranked first in the world for many years in a row and become a truly big country in patent applications with a rapid growth rate and an unprecedented number.But it is puzzling that the ability to innovate in China over the same period have not been improved significantly with the surge in the number of patent applications.This phenomenon has attracted extensive attention in academia.At present,the academic circles have carried on a lot of discussions on the motivation behind the patent application,and have given a variety of explanations,but these widely discussed motivations still cannot fully reveal the complex purpose behind the enterprise patent application.For example,in the existing literature,scholars point out that the initial purpose of patent application of enterprises is to protect innovation achievements,defend against imitation and obtain monopoly economic benefits.However,with the continuous change of the market environment,the degree of competition is becoming fiercer,and the behaviors related to patent application show the characteristics of aggression and strategy.The reason lies in the evolution of the motivation behind the patent applications has gradually evolved from the traditional motivation of innovation protection to a more complex and diversified strategic motivation.For example,enterprises tend to use patents to reduce competitors’ future technological space,defend against competitors’ infringement litigation,engage in technology exchange,enhane reputation or improve technological image,and so on.However,in addition to these widely discussed motivations,is there any other motivation for enterprises to apply for patents? Driven by this motivation,what kind of “alienation” will the patent application behavior show and what kind of influence will these “alienation” behaviors bring to enterprise’ performance?In view of the lack of existing research,this study puts forward the concept of“alienation” behavior of patent application,and makes a systematic analysis of the motivation behind the “alienation” behavior of enterprises’ patent application.The research content of this thesis is mainly carried out from the following parts: first,this thesis defines the concept of “alienation” behavior of patent application,and takes the“life cycle” of patent as the logic to systematically identify the behavior of patent application.It finally forms a comprehensive evaluation index system of patent application behavior.Then,based on the constructed index system of patent application behavior,this thesis reveals the phenomenon of the “alienation” behavior of the patent application by using the patent data of Chinese invention.Finally,taking the enterprise as an example,this thesis makes a theoretical analysis and empirical test on the motivation and results of the “alienation” behavior of patent application from the perspective of organizational legitimacy.Through the above research work,this thesis draws some important conclusions.First,based on the “life cycle” of patent,this thesis identifies 29 characteristics of “alienation” behavior tendency of patent application,and forms the evaluation index.Second,the results of the visual analysis show that the “alienation” behavior of Chinese patent application is remarkable.Compared with the western developed countries that apply for patent in China,domestic patent application is more inclined to be simply written,which is pursuing the “speed” and the “quantity” but ignoring the“quality”.Specifically,from a single patent,the results show that,○1 the number of claims,the number of pages and the number of technical fields included in domestic patent applications are relatively smaller.○2 The intensity of cooperation is stronger.That is the number of applicants and inventors included in domestic patent applications are larger.○3 The “life cycle” of domestic patent is short.That is,the durations of patent publication,the substantive examination request and the authorization are relatively short,moreover,the durations of the maintenance and the whole life span of patents are much shorter than those of the developed countries,such as the United States,Japan and Germany.From the perspective of the overall paten,the results indicate that,○1 the number of domestic patent applications is growing faster than that of developed countries,and ranking first for many years in a row.○2 The degree of diversification and novelty of domestic patent applications are lower.Moreover,the implementation rate and the efficiency of domestic patent applications are not high.In addition,the “alienation” characteristics of the patent application behaviors also been shown at different degrees among enterprises,individuals,research institutions and universitiesThird,there is a motivation for enterprises to apply for patents to obtain the organization legitimacy.That is to say,compared with the non-patenting enterprises,the patenting enterprises are more likely to obtain the high-tech enterprise certification,rather than to promote the growth of innovation performance,which proves that there is a motivation for enterprises to apply for patents to obtain legitimacy.These results show that enterprises applying for patents are not to protect the innovation achievements for substantive innovation,but for other purposes,which is a symbolic innovation.Fourth,driven by the motivation of obtaining legitimacy,enterprises will try their best to reduce the difficulty of patent application,which is pursuing the “speed” and the “quantity”,but ignoring the “quality”,Specifically,driven by the motivation of obtaining legitimacy,enterprise’ patent application behaviors will be “alienation”.At the level of a single patent,the high-tech enterprise certification significantly negatively affects the number of claims,the number of pages and the internationalization.In addition,it also has negative impacts on the duration of publication,authorization,maintenance and whole survival of patent applications,but has positive impacts on the number of inventors,the number of applicants and the duration of substantive examination.At the overall patent level,the high-tech enterprise certification has significant positive impacts on the intensity of coinventions and co-applications,the continuity and the diversity of patent applications.However,it has significant negative impacts on the novelty,the rate of implementation and the efficiency of patent applications.In addition,the age of enterprise plays a significant role in moderating the relationships between the motivation of obtaining legitimacy and the patent application behaviors.Fifth,the “alienation” behavior of patent application behavior has an important impact on firm performance,among which the impact on innovation performance is more significant.Specifically,the number of pages,the scope of technology,the duration of publication,the duration of request for substantive examination,the duration of maintenance,the duration of survival,the number of patent applicants,the continuity,the novelty,the implementation rate and the efficiency have a significant positive impact on firms’ innovation performance,while the intensity of co-application,the duration of substantive examination and the diversification of patent applications have a significant negative impact on firms’ innovation performance.The number of claims,the durations of maintenance and survival,the continuity,the internationalization and the efficiency positively affect firms’ financial performance.However,the durations of substantive examination and authorization,and the diversification have a significant negative effect on firms’ financial performance.This thesis is innovative from several aspects.First,this study jumps out of the existing research on the motivation by introducing the concept of legitimacy,and further analyzes the changes of patent application “alienation” behavior driven by this motivation.This new research perspective provides another possible explanation for the motivation of enterprises to apply for patents,which is of great significance to enrich and expand the current theory of enterprise innovation.Second,this study puts forward the concept of “alienation” behavior of patent application,and identifies the multidimensional patent application behavior based on the logic of patent “life cycle”.Moreover,it reveals the phenomenon of “alienation” behavior of patent application,and investigates the influence of the motivation of obtaining legitimacy on the“alienation” behavior of enterprise patent application.Meanwhile,this study also investigates the impact of these behaviors on firm performance.Therefore,an overall framework is constructed to analyze the whole picture of patent application behavior in an enterprise.Third,the conclusions of this study can provide some guidance for enterprises and policy makers.On the one hand,it analyzes enterprises’ patent application behavior based on the logic of patent “life cycle”.Thus,it improves the transparency of firms’ patent applications to help them reduce symbolic patent application behavior.As a result,it can help firms to conduct substantial innovation to enhance innovation ability and international competitiveness.On the other hand,it provides a set of index system for the government to evaluate enterprises’ patent application behaviors.Thus,it can help the government identify whether enterprises are symbolic innovation or substantive innovation.Consequently,the government can avoid the adverse selection in the process of patent policy screening,and provide support for substantive innovation enterprises to achieve the goal of improving the overall innovation ability and increasing international competitiveness.