Patent Applications for Electronic Publishing Market (2014–2018). Selected Issues

Abstract

Purpose/Thesis: The article analyses patent applications for inventions in the area of electronic publishing. Its investigates how the number of patent applications changed in the years 2014–2018, which companies were the most active in the field, and what was their providence. The issues of crucial importance to the inventors were identified by the study of the symbols used by International Patent Classification.Approach/Methods: The analysis was based on the data from the base Lens.org from years 2014–2018. In total, 1733 patent applications related to electronic publishing were identified.Results and conclusions: The study recorded an increasing activity of Chinese and Korean inventors, and a low number of patent applications filed by European firms. The applicants focus on specific functions facilitating interaction between the user and digital devices; a relatively high number of appli­cations is concerned with electronic commerce, and with the use of electronic publishing in education.Originality/Value: An analysis of patent applications may help to identify specific phenomena occur­ring in the field of information technologies. It records the recent trends in research, and identifies the countries and agents which lead the development of widely understood electronic publishing.