특허의 경제적 수명의 결정요인에 관한 연구 : 갱신자료를 활용한 생존분석

A Study on the Determinants of the Economic Value of Patents Using Renewal Data

This paper explores the determinants of the economic value of patents using a survival time analysis. The analysis is based on renewal information of about 250,000 patents filed from 1984 to 2005 in the Korea Intellectual Property Office. A patent right is valid only when its owner pays yearly maintenance fees. Failure to pay causes patent rights to be lapsed. We use the fact that more valued patents live longer and the lengths of their renewals can be closely related to their value. The value can be affected not only by its own technological aspects such as quality and breadth, but also by characteristics of its owners such as innovativeness and age. This paper presents patent-specific and firm-specific characteristics which influence patent value. The result of analysis implies that patent value depends on both the technological contents of the patent and general capabilities of a firm.