World-class patents – the “gold” of the knowledge economy?

In “Wirtschaftsdienst”, the journal for economic policy, EconSight together with the Bertelsmann Foundation presented our new technology approach. Instead of the classic measurement of innovation capability based on patent applications, our new world-class approach focuses on technology-specific patent quality. Using extensive country examples in different technologies, we show the advantages of the approach and classify the dynamics of patent development. The results show that the U.S. lead in the patent area is even more evident in this approach, that China is also catching up strongly in terms of patent quality, and that Europe has an urgent need for action, particularly in digital technologies.

Unfortunately, the publication is only available in German.