Study On The Evolution Of Patent Thicket In Smartphone

With the complexity of technical composition and the discovery of patents' economic value,patents have evolved into a tool of seeking profit and participating competition.Especially in the field of electronic information,network communication and biomedical industries,companies are increasingly applying patents actively,leading to the emergence of patent thicket.At present,Chinese enterprises are expanding overseas markets actively.However,due to the lack of experience,enterprises are often caught in patent thicket.They have to pay for the high cost of patent royalty,but also negotiate with patentees.This delays the process of innovation and even the introduction of new products.Patent thicket has caused great obstacles to follow-up innovation.In order to avoid these basic patents,the subsequent patent applications and R&D activities are all subject to its constraints.The problem of patent thicket has become a new issue in the front of Chinese enterprises.In this paper,the patents of smartphone are selected as the research object.The methods of patentometrics are taken as theoretical basis.By using Excel as data processing software and Ucinet as the data mining tool,the evolutionary analysis of patent thicket in smartphone is studied.Firstly,through the analysis of relative studies and typical cases,the characteristics of the evolution are summarized.Secondly,this paper puts forward the use of patent coupling to construct patent relationship network.We can gain the overall understand based on the index of patent density.In order to explore the distribution of patent in the process further,this paper puts forward the analysis of patent distribution in the field of smartphone by using patent concentration index.Research shows that the evolution of patent thicket in the field of smartphone can be divided into three stages.During the emerging stage,the patent density gradually reduces.The purpose of the patent application is to protect the technological innovation and then carry out the basic patent layout.During the growth stage,the patents applied are convergenced and patent density grows rapidly.They are used to build a patent portfolio and expand the scope of patent protection.During the maturity stage,the patent density begins to decline.Due to the saturation of technical patents,patentees gradually pay attention to the advantages of weak innovation,and carry out the design-based patent litigation more frequently.