Research On The Measurement Of Patent Rights Fragmentation For China Excavator Industry

With the development of excavator industry in the past decades of years, excavatorindustry in China has become large and strong from small or weak, and its marketcompetition is becoming increasingly fierce. Patent is the weapon in market competition,so more and more large excavator manufacturers apply for lots of patents to protect theiradvantage, and making an increasing number of patents in the industry. Patent rightsfragmentation, refers to patents of a specific technology are shared by different patentholders. In this paper, with the analysis of the excavator industry patent layout in China,the author explores the industry patent rights fragmentation degree based on measurementtheory of patent dispersion, and analyzes the reason of dispersion so as to provideinformation support and suggestions for the healthy and orderly developing of Chinaexcavator industry.Based on sorted out the China excavator industry market development status and patentportfolio situation, the author puts forward three hypotheses；after a comprehensivecomparative analysis of the existing measurement methods, the paper choosesHerfindahl-HeSeaman index method (referred to as HHI) as finial research tool of patentrights fragmentation; by means of patent information analysis tool, this paper classifiesand statistics the excavator industry patent information, and verifies above threehypotheses. The results show that:(1) China’s excavator industry shows the tendency ofpatent rights fragmentation;(2) among the key technology of excavator, for example:working device, control means and running gear, the patent rights fragmentation isdifferent;(3)foreign excavator corporate patents which affect the degree of patent rightsfragmentation on industry trends has gradually weakened. Therefor, in order to promoteChina excavator industry reasonably healthy and orderly development, we should promotethe appropriate concentration of patents; guide enterprises in the industry horizontal,vertical mergers and joint; and emphasis on the development of the domestic partsindustry.