Lobo and Strumsky, 2019

• José Lobo and Deborah Strumsky. 2019. Sources of inventive novelty: two patent classification schemas, same story. Scientometrics, 120:1, 1 Jul 2019, pp 19–37 : https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1007/s11192-019-03102-2 In ACM digital library?!

• Abstract, compressed: An essential feature of a modern patenting system is a classification schema for organizing, indexing and coding the technical information contained in a patent. Patent classification systems make it possible for patent examiners and prospective inventors to search through existing patents in order to find information pertinent to evaluating a patent application's purported novelty. Patent classification systems also support the construction of a taxonomy for the various sources of inventive novelty embodied in patented inventions. Until 2013 the U.S. Patent Office used the USPC system. Since then it has used the CPC system. These two systems incorporate different classification logics. The CPC has finer granularity. Here we examine the extent to which the two classification systems generate similar historical narratives as to the sources of inventive novelty. Common patterns are revealed regardless of which classification system is used. We take invention to be a cumulative process in which new inventions are developed by combining existing technologies. Refinements (the re-use of existing technologies) and combinations of previously existing technological functionalities predominate in the patent record, while inventions embodying previously unseen technologies are rare. The rate at which inventions representing non-refinements have been introduced into the stock of inventions has kept pace with the generation of inventions representing refinements, thereby feeding the combinatorial process.
• References:

• Adams, S. 2001. Comparing the IPC and the US classification systems for the patent searcher. World Patent Information, 23, 15-23.
• Allan, K. 2002. Natural language semantics. Oxford: Wiley.
• Allison, J. R., & Lemley, M. A. 2002. The growing complexity of the United States patent system. Boston University Law Review, 82, 1-77.

Original title	Sources of inventive novelty: two patent classification schemas, same story
Simple title	Sources of inventive novelty: two patent classification schemas, same story
Authors	José Lobo, Deborah Strumsky
Date	2019
Countries	US
Languages	en
Keywords	patent classifications, USPC, CPC
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