TITLE:
Does It Matter Who Owns It? A Comparison Study and Demographic Profiling of Patent Ownership and Its Impact on Commercialisation in Sri Lanka
AUTHORS:
Romaine Ferdinands, S. M. Ferdous Azam, Ali Khatibi
KEYWORDS:
Patents, IP Ownership, Academic Patents, Independent Inventors, Invention, Innovation, Commercialisation, Technology Transfer
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.12 No.10,
October
31,
2022
ABSTRACT: Purpose: This study compares the demographic profiling of patent ownership in Sri
Lanka with counterparts in other parts of the world. The study also seeks to
understand the impact of patent ownership on patent commercial success as Sri
Lanka is one of the few countries where a significant number of independent
individuals are involved in the innovation process as inventors. Sri Lanka, as a country, struggles to make economic
headway through the commercialisation of innovation. This factor of ownership
could be an influencing factor for non-commercialisation. The study
explores this aspect by comparing ownership between individual held patents
with organisational patents on a national scale. The study also compares the
findings with other similar global studies. Methodology: A sample of 220
respondents from a national sample comprising individual patent holders and
organisational patent holders, including universities (IHL’s), Government
Research Organizations (GRI’s) and commercial
enterprises, was used in this cross-sectional study and analysed using
SPSS version 21. The study uses descriptive statistics and Chai square analysis
to address the research questions. The study is limited to patents granted
between 2010 and 2014. Findings: The empirical findings confirm that
ownership does influence the probability of commercialisation in favour of
organisational ownership. The study also reveals a near equal match in
demographic profiling with developed countries, indicating a mature inventor
community. This finding draws policymakers’ attention to the support required
for the most crucial stage of patent commercialisation. Research
Implications/Limitation: The study contributes to comparing the demographic profiling of patent holders by ownership category,
gender, education, experience, the propensity in the inventions, patent strength,
and patent commercialisation with other global studies and helps benchmark the
achievement of the SL patents in a global perspective. The limitation of the
study is the period selected for analysis as the study setting is set
relatively early in the stage of the country’s innovation policy development
and should be replicated through the analysis of more recent patents. Originality: Despite the increased interest in patent studies and innovation, very few
studies have provided empirical evidence that compares different patent
ownership in a single study, especially in the context of an emerging country
and the tracking of the patent commercial potential. Therefore, this study
contributes to this body of knowledge and the findings valuable for patent
holders and policymakers.