The Construction And Application Of Maturity Index For Patent Thickets

In recent years,the number of patents in the world shows an explosive growth trend,and patents are densely distributed and closely related.The patent thickets is becoming a new phenomenon in the field of patents.The patent group is formed by the overlapping and intertwined patents,which is similar to the entangled bushes,so it is called the patent thickets.As patents evolved from protection to competitive tools,the number of patents grows rapidly,and related technologies for new products were embedded in complex technology networks.In this context,technology research and development often involves many related technologies,and it is easy to fall into patent encirclement.The technical links between patents have become increasingly complex,which lead to the creation of patent thickets.With the increasingly fierce competition in technology,the patent thickets has a profound impact on technology research and development.Faced with massive patent data,how to measure the maturity of the patent thickets quantitatively is becoming an urgent problem to be solved.The study aims to build a maturity index for pantent thickets,which can quantify the maturity of patent thickets in specific technology areas.Firstly,the quantitative measurement methods and the characteristic performance of the patent thickets mentioned in the existing studies are summarized,in order to lay a foundation for indicators selection.Secondly,the static and dynamic characteristics of the patent thickets are considered comprehensively.Based on this,six observation layer indicators from three characteristics which include quantity,structure and activity are selected.And the weights are determined by principal component analysis method,the maturity index of the patent thickets is constructed.Finally,specific technology field is selected,rely on the emerging patent database,the time range of entering the patent thickets is determined based on the long cycle time series data.By using cluster analysis,the maturity index of patent thickets is taken as the clustering index,the evolution process of patent thickets is divided,and the characteristics of each stage are analyzed in detail.The characteristic changes in the evolution process of patent thickets are revealed.The research shows that the patent thickets in the field of smart phone human-computer interaction technology presents a dynamic evolution process,which goes through the stages of germination,growth and maturity.In the germination stage,the maturity index first decreases and then increases,but still keep at low level.The amount of valid patent accumulation is fewer and the patent activities are less.After entering the growth stage,the maturity index of the patent thickets first maintains at a low level,and then it starts to increase rapidly.The valid patents gradually accumulate.At the maturity stage of the patent thickets,the maturity index continues to grow,but at a slower rate.At the same time,the accumulation of valid patents keep at a high level but the growth rate begin to slow down.The number of valid patents is large and patents are densely distributed.With enterprises pay more and more attention to the patent layout,patent activities become more and more frequent in this stage.