A Study on the Dead Storage Mechanism in Joint Patent Applications of Universities and Industries

Abstract

The Collaboration of Universities and Industries (CUI) activities in Japan have been increasing, especially since the enactment of the Basic Act on Science and Technology (1995). However, CUI was evaluated negatively in the 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan (2016), because it was judged to have not produced sufficient innovation in Japan. The report suggests that this was the result of insufficient utilization of the results of collaborative research between universities and industries in Japan. It appears that the traditional Japanese practice of forming agreements for collaborative research contributes to this problem. The purpose of the present study was to understand why results of collaborative research are little-used, with consideration of the "dead storage" of joint patenting. Therefore, after confirming the status of the patenting act in Japanese universities from a statistical perspective, I conducted a questionnaire survey concerning the occurrence of dead storage of joint patenting with respect to the CUI activities against the CUI section of Japanese universities. The results confirmed the existence of such dead storage, and revealed that there are different types of dead storage.