A Survival Analysis of the Approval of U.S. Patent Applications

Ying Xie and David Giles
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Ying Xie: Department of Economics, University of Victoria, https://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/economics/

No 707, Econometrics Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Victoria

Abstract: We model the length of time that it takes for a patent application to be granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, conditional on the patent actually being awarded eventually. Survival analysis is applied and both the nonparametric Kaplan-Meier and parametric accelerated failure time models are used to analyze the data. We find that the number of claims a patent makes, the number of citations a patent makes, the patent’s technological category, and the type of applicant all have significant effects on the duration that a patent is under consideration. A log-normal survival model is the preferred parametric specification, and the results suggest that the hazard function is non-monotonic over time.

Keywords: Patents; research and development; survival analysis; hazard function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C16 C29 C46 L10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2007-08-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-ipr and nep-pr~
Note: ISSN 1485-6441
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: A survival analysis of the approval of US patent applications (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vic:vicewp:0707

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