Co-Patents: What do trends reveal? An assessment of European innovation systems

Concepts like 'innovation systems', 'open innovation' and innovation ecosystems all direct our attention to the importance of collaboration and spillovers for understanding innovation dynamics. In this paper we analyse the extent to which co-patents, i.e., patents owned jointly by two or more independent entities, signal a growing trend (1980 - 2015) and whether growth is situated alike across countries, technological fields and type of actors. We rely on EPO data for a set of 43 European countries. Our findings provide insights on two levels. First, a detailed assessment of the type of actors involved in co-patenting activities reveals a considerable amount (28%) of 'false positives', i.e., co-ownership of patents by actors being part of one and the same (consolidated) entity. Second, when analyzing the patterns resulting from deflated indicators, our findings reveal that co-patents are becoming more common albeit highly differentiated across fields, countries and type of actors. An outspoken increase is observed for science intensive fields as well as for governmental agencies and universities. While universities and public organizations tend to opt for more entrepreneurial behavior of a collaborative/sharing kind, this is much less the case for firms.