Patent Activity Analysis of Czech Universities at the Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic

Universities contribute to economic growth not only through teaching and research, but through engagement and collaborations with industry and other off campus entities. One way of measuring the economic effects of these activities is to examine patent data. Recent years have seen an increased use of patent metrics to evaluate innovation and research performance. Patent documents and patent data generally have several advantages as technology indicator, whereas they are accessible in electronic formats. These data provide details of inventions resulting from university research and collaboration. Sophisticated analysis enables us to examine these documents and track technological knowledge. This pilot study examined patents originating from 19 Czech universities and considered metrics such as: the number of patents published, or technology specializations, or number of family numbers, or type of intellectual property rights, or the frequency of citations of patents in patent documents, success by patent granting. From this data we were able to extend our basic understanding of the relationship between patents and the impact of university originated research.