actual number of patents assigned to U.S. 

 corporations increased 73 percent between 1960 

 and 1973. "Assignment," however, cannot be 

 equated completely with the actual source of the 

 invention. Some patents granted to individuals 

 may be assigned subsequently to corporations, 

 and some patents assigned to the Federal 

 Government have their origins in federally 

 funded R&D performed in industry. 

 Nevertheless, it is clear that industry is the 

 major producer of patented inventions in the 

 U.S. 



Patent output by product field. In addition to 

 the sources of patents, information was obtained 

 on the product fields in which the patents were 

 most likely to be applied. Through a concordance 

 developed between the patent classification 

 system of the U.S. Patent Office and the 

 Standard Industrial Classification (SIO^" 

 system, it was possible to categorize U.S. patents 

 granted between 1963 and 1973 into 30 SIC- 

 based product fields,-'" with respect to the fields 

 in which the patents were most likely to be 

 applied. These product fields encompass most of 

 the manufacturing sector of industry, and 

 include 96 percent of all U.S. patents granted 

 during the period. 



All patents granted to U.S. citizens, cor- 

 porations, and the Federal Government were 

 assigned to these product fields on the basis of 

 the area of their probable use.-'i The six product 

 fields with the highest patent activity are shown 

 in figure 4-12. The greatest number of patents 

 during the 1963-73 period were applicable to the 

 machinery product field, and within this field to 

 the construction, mining and materials handling 

 machinery subfield. Following machinery in the 

 number of patents were fabricated metals, 

 chemicals (particularly basic industrial 

 chemicals), electrical equipment, communication 

 equipment, and professional and scientific 

 instruments. These fields include many of the 

 areas with a high output of major innovations. 

 (See the later section of this chapter entitled 

 'Technological innovation".) 



-" Slnndani Industrial Classification Manual, Executive Office of 

 the President, Office of Management and Budget, 1972. 



5» Indicators of the Patent Output of U.S. Industry. Office of 

 Technology Assessment and Forecast, U.S. Patent Office, 

 1974. (A study commissioned specifically for this report). 



3> Because of the possible utilization of the technology 

 represented by a given patent in more than one product field, 

 many patents w^ere counted more than once. For this reason, 

 prcxluct field totals do not correspond with the patent totals 

 presented in the previous section. 



98 



