The university-industry knowledge relationship: Analyzing patents and the science base of technologies

TL;DR

This study analyzes the science base of patents using the U.S. Patent Office database, comparing university patents globally and in the Netherlands, revealing sector-specific patterns in university-industry relations.

Contribution

It introduces methods for accessing and visualizing patent data to explore the science base of patents and compares sectoral differences in university-industry knowledge relationships.

Findings

Biotechnology has historically shaped university-industry relation models.

Sector-specific differences limit generalization of biotech-based models.

Patent references reveal sectoral variations in science bases.

Abstract

Via the Internet, information scientists can obtain cost-free access to large databases in the hidden or deep web. These databases are often structured far more than the Internet domains themselves. The patent database of the U.S. Patent and Trade Office is used in this study to examine the science base of patents in terms of the literature references in these patents. University-based patents at the global level are compared with results when using the national economy of the Netherlands as a system of reference. Methods for accessing the on-line databases and for the visualization of the results are specified. The conclusion is that 'biotechnology' has historically generated a model for theorizing about university-industry relations that cannot easily be generalized to other sectors and disciplines.