Sectoral Strengths and Weaknesses of Advanced Countries in Different Patent Institutions

The assessment of national capabilities and performance in specific fields of technology is becoming increasingly important for the policy making of both governments and firms. The previous Chapter shows that in all countries the technological effort, measured both by input indicators such as R&D and by output indicators such as patents, has grown over the last decade. A tendency towards an increasing internationalization of technological activities has also been identified. Moving beyond the aggregate picture of science and technology (S&T) activities, we examine in this and in the following Chapters the sectoral patterns of national specialization in technology, using patent data as an indicator. This evidence will then be matched in Chapter 7 with a parallel analysis on the sectoral patterns of scientific specialization, using bibliometric indicators.