Abstract
The purpose of this study is to reveal the difference of the contents of patent applications and the processes after the applications among 3 types of applicants (universities, public research institutes and private enterprises) in the field of nanostructure (B82B1/00 of International Patent Classification (IPC)). By searching Industrial Property Digital Library (IPDL), the data of the patent applications have been collected and analyzed. As a result, it is understood that there are significant differences in the numbers of the pages of the publications of unexamined patent applications and in the numbers of theme codes. Concerning the distribution of the theme codes, it is understood that there are large differences in 7 technological fields (optics and imaging, medical chemical and equipment, plastic molding and processing, inorganic material, organic material, metallic material, semiconductor). Concerning the distribution of the theme codes, it is understood that there are large differences in 7 technological fields (optics and imaging, medical chemical and equipment, plastic molding and processing, inorganic material, organic material, metallic material, semiconductor). It should be noted that the 7 fields include the fields where the number of the theme codes per patent application of private enterprises is larger than that of universities or public research institutes, and the fields where the number of universities or public research institutes is larger than that of private enterprises. In the process after application, it is understood that there are significant differences both in the ratio of examination request implementation to examination request decision and the ratio of examination completion to examination request implementation.
