EMERGING TRENDS AND STRUCTURAL CHANGES OF GLOBAL INNOVATION ECOSYSTEMS: EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF CHANGING PATENT AND TRADEMARK ACTIVITY OF G7 COUNTRIES AND BRICS COUNTRIES FROM YEARS 1985-2015

Abstract

Reliable intellectual property (IP) statistics are providing a very important tool in understanding trends in global policy, global business, and technology developments worldwide. Today global innovation ecosystems are in fast transition. Economic analysis has taken an interest in studying the problems associated with technological change. Adequate indicators have been identified, which make it possible to provide a coherent explanation for technological activities and their relationship with economic efficiency and activity. Although the earliest science, technology and innovation studies were focused on analysing the activities of research and development (R&D), at present the focus of analysis has shifted to another type of variable, more oriented towards the gathering of knowledge and capabilities, in which patents and trademarks provide relevant information. This empirical study analyses three trends of patent and trademark activity in Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa (the BRICS countries) over three decades. The study is based on World Bank data. The study covers years 1985-2015. The study is comparative country study of patent and trademark activity. The study will report the following results: (1) aggregate patent trends of the BRICS and G7 countries, and (2) trademark trends of the BRICS and G7 countries, (3) patent/trademark relationship development of the BRICS and G7 countries and (4) key relational analyses of BRICS and G7 countries. The study elaborates (5) on proportional activity of patent and trademark activity of all BRICS and G7 countries. Some comparative analyses in relation to BRICS and G7 countries are reported in the final section (Section 5). In our analysis, descriptive analysis describes previous long-run events. Descriptive analytics allow us to learn from previous events and trends. We can also use trend analysis to expect how they might affect future behaviour. Trend analysis of the study includes trend analyses of patent and trademark data, index series analyses of patent and trademark data, yearly changes analyses of patent and trademark data and finally the analysis of most recent data observation in comparison with previous data observation. This kind of basic data analysis will provide interesting insights into emerging trends and structural changes of the global innovation ecosystem.