Study shows that number of U.S. patents issued to Japanese has grown over last decade

Business America, Sept 25, 1989

Japanese inventors have doubled their share of U.S. patents over the last decade while U.S. inventiveness has steadily declined. The Japanese also hold more U.S. patents than British, French, and German inventors combined.

These conclusions were the result of a study of U.S. patents issued to American and Japanese inventors between 1975 and 1985. The study was co-authored by J. Davidson Frame, Chairman of Management Science at the George Washington University, and Francis Narin, President of CHI Research/Computer Horizons.

"Our study confirms quantitatively what many people have long suspected," said Frame. "The Japanese are very strong technologically. But their scientific achievements are modest. This should not be surprising when you consider that Japanese universities graduate five engineers for each scientist. In the United States, our universities graduate 1 1/2 scientists for each engineer."

Frame continued by stating that for years, American scientists were under the impression that the Japanese were copycats of American technology. "Our research does not show this to be the case. The quality and impact of Japanese inventions on the science world is very high and we believe this demonstrates a burgeoning Japanese inventive vitality."

Patents are grants issued to inventors, giving them exclusive control over their inventions for 17 years. They are only issued for products and processes considered to be innovative. Because the U.S. consumer market is the largest and most sophisticated in the world, a company looking to earn a substantial monetary return from its technology will seek a patent in the United States, said Frame.

During the period studied, the share of U.S. patents issued to Japanese inventors doubled from 9 to 18 percent, the authors said. In contrast, the U.S. share decreased from 65 to 56 percent. By 1984, Japanese inventors held more U.S. patents than inventors from England, France, and West Germany combined.

According to the authors, Japanese inventors have increasingly dominated key technologies such as automobiles, semiconductor electronics, and recording technology throughout the 1980s. By 1986, Hitachi had become the number one recipient of U.S. patents. The trend continued into 1987 when the top three U.S. patent recipients were Hitachi, Canon, and Toshiba.

"The results of our study indicate that Japan is rapidly increasing its technological strength," notes Frame. "Their engineers are focusing their research efforts on entering a consumer market where they know they will reap the greatest economic returns."

In addition, Frame and Narin examined the number of patent citations each Japanese patent received. When a new technology or product receives a patent, federal patent officials examine the invention to define its legal limits. These limits appear on the patent in the form of examiner citations and define the boundaries to which other inventions may extend and infringe on the patent.

Heavily cited patents represent key technologies from which other advances can emerge, Frame explains. Frame and Narin found that on the average, Japanese patents were more heavily cited than U.S. or European patents.

While the study demonstrates that the Japanese possess great technological strength, Frame said, the number of scientific papers published by their scientists in world-class journals is small.