Are there enduring patents?

U.S. patents (and the technology they represent) age and eventually become obsolete. In this diachronous study, the citations by patents in a given year are compared to the number in subsequent years. The major findings are that, even though influential patents remain influential as they age, both h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Society for Information Science 1985-09, Vol.36 (5), p.297-301
Main Authors: Noma, Elliot, Olivastro, Dominic
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Aging
Bibliometrics
Citation analysis
Citations
Innovations
Inventors
Library materials
Obsolescence
Studies
Technological change
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Summary:U.S. patents (and the technology they represent) age and eventually become obsolete. In this diachronous study, the citations by patents in a given year are compared to the number in subsequent years. The major findings are that, even though influential patents remain influential as they age, both highly and infrequently cited patents age at the same rate. This means that citations do not automatically beget more citations, and without this bandwagon effect, no patents are enduring. In addition, the distribution of patents by number of citations received is stable over time (here, in each year they are distributed as a negative binomial).
ISSN:0002-8231
1097-4571
DOI:10.1002/asi.4630360503