The Internationalization of Corporate R&D

THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF CORPORATE R&DBy analyzing the growth and patterns of patenting, national technological performance is,to some extent, measurable and comparable. The U.S. patent system, administered by theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), is generally used for internationalcomparisons of technological performance. 9Patenting in ICT fields represents a considerable share of total patenting in most countries.This share has increased considerably during the past two decades, particularly in the leadingICT-producing countries. Unlike several other countries, the Swedish ICT patentingdidn’t start to grow rapidly until the 1990s. This seems to be directly related to the rapidgrowth in R&D investments in the industry during that period, although changes in patentingstrategies in Ericsson have probably contributed to this rapid growth in patenting. 10Despite the rapid growth in Swedish ICT patenting during the 1990s, ICT patents as a shareof total Swedish patenting remained the lowest of all leading ICT-producing countries. WithICT patents accounting for 31 percent of total patents in the USPTO in 2001, Sweden ranksninth in the world in terms of technological specialization on ICT, with Singapore andKorea at the top.Although Sweden is not as technologically specialized in ICT as most other leading ICTproducingnations, Swedish ICT patenting per capita is among the highest in the world. Therelatively low ICT patenting specialization primarily illustrates the relatively broad technologicalbase in Sweden, compared to most other countries. Several of the other leading ICTproducingcountries, such as Korea, Israel, Taiwan and Finland are strongly, specialized inICT. It also seems clear that the economic growth of the ICT industries in the leading ICTproducingcountries, including Finland and Sweden, were associated with a rapid upgradingof the technological capabilities of the ICT industry as a whole.Swedish technological performance in the ICT industry improved rapidly during the 1990s,as measured in U.S. patenting. However, recent trends show stagnant development comparedto other leading countries in the ICT industry (Figure 5-4). Although the figures aredifferent if international comparisons are based on patenting at the European Patent Office(EPO), or in terms of so-called Triadic patents, the trend is similar for Sweden. This trendstarted before the recent downturns in ICT R&D investments. In combination with decreasingR&D investments, the downward trend in Swedish ICT patenting should be amajor concern for the future of Swedish ICT competitiveness.9 For many countries, the U.S. is an important location for knowledge-intensive production. The costs forpatenting in the U.S. are considerable, which is an important incentive to patent only relatively importantinventions in the U.S.10 Because considerable and varying time lags often exist between R&D activities and patenting – especiallypatent-granting, as studied herein – it is difficult to establish the exact relationship between Swedish R&Dinvestments in the ICT industry and Swedish ICT patenting in the U.S. The exact nature of this relationshiprequires further study.139