Science-Metrix was commissioned by SRI International, on behalf of the National Science Foundation, to develop measures and indicators of research and patent activity using bibliometric and patent data for inclusion in the Science and Engineering Indicators (SEI) 2020. This technical document details the various steps taken to implement the databases, clean and standardize the data, and produce statistics for the part of the SEI report related to intellectual property rights (IPRs). For this 2020 edition, the scope of IPRs covered in the report was broadened; in addition to USPTO utility patents, the report now covers USTPO plant and design patents, plant variety protections, worldwide patent families, USPTO trademarks and EPO trademarks.
Note: This work was funded by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of NCSES or the NSF. The analysis for this research was conducted by SRI International on behalf of NSF’s NCSES under contract number NSFDACS1063289.