Concessão de patentes a residentes no Brasil: 1990/95

Abstract

This work uses data on invention patents of Brazilian firms or individuals, issued by Brazil and by the United States from 1990 through 1995, to analyze Brazilian innovation activity. The two main sources of data are patent statistics of the Brazilian Instituto Nacional de Propriedade Industrial, Inpi, and of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Patent owners are ranked by number of patents within three categories: ownership structure, manufacturing sector and patent classification code of the World Intelectual Property Organization. The study examines the stability of these rankings and investigates the relationship between the R&D expenditures reported in the manufacturing census of 1985 and patenting activity in the period 1990/95. The results show a very high share of patents granted to individuals as compared to firms, a different distribution by ownership structure for Brazilian Inpi data than for the USPTO data, and a strong relationship between R&D expenditures and patenting activity across manufacturing sectors.