Table 6. Japan's share of world 



science and technology articles, by 



selected subfield:^ 1973-82 



Subfield 



Pharmacy 



Polymers 



Marine biology and hydrobiology 



General chemistry 



Electrical engineering and 



electronics 



Applied physics 



Agriculture and food science . . . 



Microscopy 



Organic chemistry 



General physics 



Analytical chemistry 



Embryology 



Nuclear technology 



Percent 



25 

 18 

 14 

 13 



12 

 12 

 11 

 11 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 



' Sublields in which Japanese articles represented 1 percent or more 

 ot sulJtield Data are from a lixed set of about 2,300 journals covered 

 by the Scieme Citation Index since 1973 

 SOURCE Francis Narin and Dominic Olivastro, Activity Analysis Us- 

 ing SIC Categories and Scientilic Sublields, interim report by Com- 

 puter Horizons, Inc , to the National Science Foundation. May 1986 



published. On this basis, total Jap- 

 anese-authored articles have slightly 

 less of an impact than would be ex- 

 pected — in 1983, the relative citation 

 ratio for all Japanese articles was 

 0.91.^^ However, this ratio was up 

 significantly from its 1973 level of 

 0.77, and in engineering it increased 

 from 0.76 in 1973 to 1.25 in 1983. In 

 comparison, the U.S. citation ratio 

 for all articles was 1.36 in 1973 and 

 1.34 in 1983. 



patent indicators 



Patents are often considered an 

 indicator of the vigor of individual 

 scientists and engineers, corpora- 

 tions, or nations in developing new 

 products and processes. However, 

 national practices regarding domes- 

 tic patent applications and grants of- 

 ten make comparisons of absolute 

 numbers of patents problematic. For 

 example, in Japan and Germany both 



-'"See Francis Narin and Dominic Olivastro, Iden- 

 tifying Areas of Leading Edge Japanese Science and Tech- 

 nology, Final Report to the National Science 

 Foundation, Division of Science Resources Studies, 

 April 1988, p. 170, 



actual inventions and practical de- 

 signs are acceptable as the basis for 

 a patent application; in the United 

 States, the more stringent criterion 

 of actual invention customarily is re- 

 quired for a patent application. Also, 

 in some countries (including Japan), 

 patent applications are viewed as a 

 key indicator of a laboratory's pro- 

 ductivity. Under such circum- 

 stances, and especially when the cost 

 for submitting a domestic applica- 

 tion is modest, companies may sub- 

 mit a number of applications for 

 inventions that have little likelihood 

 of ever being implemented.^' 



On the other hand, since submit- 

 ting applications to foreign coun- 

 tries is more costly, companies 

 usually make foreign applications 

 only for those inventions that are 

 genuinely believed to have com- 

 mercial value in the foreign market. 

 Based on this tendency, compari- 

 sons of patent applications abroad 

 can indicate the most important or 

 potentially profitable inventions. 



Japan accounts for the largest share 

 of foreign-origin patents in the U.S. 

 patent system. Analysis of Japa- 

 nese-invented U.S. patents granted 

 between 1970 and 1986 demon- 

 strates substantial Japanese patent- 

 ing activity: during the period, the 

 share of U.S. patents annually 

 granted to the Japanese increased 

 from 4 percent to 19 percent. As 

 shown in table 7, the Japanese share 

 of patents by SIC category also has 

 risen dramatically. In 1975, Japa- 

 nese-origin patents accounted for 9 

 percent of U.S. patents granted for 

 all SIC categories; by 1985, this share 

 had doubled to 19 percent. In most 

 SIC categories, the Japanese share 

 of total patents granted was nearly 



-"The standard legal text comparing international 

 patent systems is John P. Sinnott, World Patent Law: 

 Patent Statutes, Regulations, and Treaties (New York, 

 New York: Matthew Bender & Co,, Inc., 1974), and 

 is updated annually. See also Stephen Ladas, Pa- 

 tents, Trademarks, and Related Rights: National and In- 

 ternational Protection (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard 

 Univ. Press, 1974). Note that there have been recent 

 changes in Japanese patent law, including the re- 

 moval of single-claim restrictions. 



Table 7. Japanese-invented U.S. 



patents by SIC category: 1975 



and 1985 



[Percent] 



'stone, clay, and glass products 

 'Includes computers 



SOURCE OHice ol Technology Assessment and Forecast, U S Pa- 

 tent and Trademark Office, unpublished data 



20 percent or more; the shares were 

 highest in the office computing ma- 

 chinery (33 percent), aircraft and 

 parts (30 percent), and communi- 

 cations equipment and electronic 

 components (26 percent) category. 



In terms of patent class (as op- 

 posed to SIC group), Japanese pa- 

 tenting activity during 1975-84 was 

 concentrated in the internal com- 

 bustion engines, radiation imagery, 

 and photography patent classes; 

 more than 2,000 patents were granted 

 in each of these three classes during 

 the 1975-84 period (table B-26). The 

 Japanese shares were highest in the 

 photography (53 percent), dynamic 

 magnetic information storage (38 

 percent), photocopying (36 per- 

 cent), and radiation imagery (35 per- 

 cent) patent classes. 



Table 8 indicates several technol- 

 ogy areas in which Japanese pa- 

 tenting activity has been especially 

 vigorous. In all technological areas. 



33 



