Evidence from Patents and Patent Citations on the Impact of NASA and Other Federal Labs on Commercial Innovation

Federal lab commercialization is explored: (1) by analyzing US government patents and (2) in a qualitative analysis of one NASA lab's patents. Tests apply to three distinct sets of patents, 1963-94: NASA, all other US government, and a random sample of all US inventor's patents. The federa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of industrial economics 1998-06, Vol.46 (2), p.183-205
Main Authors: Jaffe, Adam B., Fogarty, Michael S., Banks, Bruce A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bibliographic citations
Citation analysis
Commercial publishing
Commercialization
Factors
Federal agencies
Government agencies
History of technology
Innovations
Inventions
Publishing industry
Research and development
Technological innovation
Technology transfer
Universities
USA
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Summary:Federal lab commercialization is explored: (1) by analyzing US government patents and (2) in a qualitative analysis of one NASA lab's patents. Tests apply to three distinct sets of patents, 1963-94: NASA, all other US government, and a random sample of all US inventor's patents. The federal patenting rate plummeted in the 1970s. Consistent with increasing commercialization, both NASA's and other federal agencies' rates recovered in the 1980s. The case study finds citations to be a valid but noisy measure of technology spillovers. Excluding 'spurious' cites, two-thirds of cites to patents of NASA-Lewis' Electro-Physics Branch were evaluated as involving spillovers.
ISSN:0022-1821
1467-6451
DOI:10.1111/1467-6451.00068