An Analysis of Technologically Radical Innovation and Breakthrough Patents

Prescribing originality: investigating the impact of original knowledge on patent quality in the pharmaceutical sector

“…They also find that the more total backward citations (regardless of industry classification) a patent has, the more likely a patent is to breach the breakthrough threshold. Briggs and Buehler (2018) find that the more distinct the technology classifications of backward citations are from the patent's own technology classifications, the more likely a patent is to breach the breakthrough threshold, confirming a benefit to thinking-outside-the-box. Examining a sample 157 patents, Schoenmakers and Duysters (2010) find that there is a statistical difference in the mean number of technologies cited in the backward citations of breakthrough patents compared to non-breakthrough patents, with breakthrough patents including citations from approximately 0.4 more 3-digit International Patent Classification (IPC) codes.…”

“…When utilizing forward citations in a panel of data, forward citation counts are typically truncated to occur within a set window of time—such as within 5 or 7 years from when the patent was granted—in order to account for the fact that older patents have more time and opportunity to be cited (Mariani and Romanelli, 2007; Schettino et al ., 2013; Briggs and Buehler, 2018). Although it is important to account for time truncation of citations, the window of truncation time used was found to yield minimal differences to the results (Squicciarini et al ., 2013).…”

“…Jung and Lee (2016) note that original knowledge, which they define as a unique recombination of knowledge not in existing innovations, is key to the discovery of breakthrough patents. Briggs and Buehler (2018) also acknowledge original recombination of knowledge as a key determinant to patent quality. While recombination has been found an important determinant of patent quality, and greater breadth of source knowledge has been noted a possible basis for such recombination (Gruber et al ., 2013), recombination attempts using unfamiliar technologies are commonly found to hinder patent quality (Arts and Veugelers, 2015; Kaplan and Vakili, 2015).…”

“…University ownership of a patent was identified by searching the OECD HAN Database for key identifiers in the patent owner's name such as: university, universit, universidad, college, institute, school and academy. This technique was used by Briggs (2015) and Briggs and Buehler (2018).…”

“…The ability to combine known technologies in previously unchartered ways – i.e. recombinant novelty indicative of originality – helps explain the discovery of the highest quality patents (Jung and Lee, 2016; Briggs and Buehler, 2018), generally, but the reliability of these results across different technology sectors has been a noted contribution to literature left to be explored. This study seeks to answer whether originality of knowledge contained within pharmaceutical patents is a statistically significant determinant of quality.…”