Deciphering Patent Value for Benchmarking Purposes Insights from a Case Study on the Development of Additive Manufacturing in the Aerospace Industry Master’s thesis in Management and Economics of Innovation

Abstract

Patent benchmarking is a valuable practice as companies can thereby gain understanding about their relative positioning within their industry. With the emergence of software for calculating patent scores, companies can now perform this benchmarking against competitors more easily. A lack of transparency in these scoring models however poses the question of what kind of patent value the models actually reflect and how the scoring ties to the overall patenting strategy. Furthermore, there is no one standard method for patent valuation, which further decreases the understanding for patent valuation as a practice. Understanding how to interpret potential value drivers for benchmarking is therefore crucial, yet it has been devoted little focus in the literature on patent valuation for benchmarking purposes. This thesis proposes a transparent framework for patent valuation for benchmarking purposes. The framework aligns the overarching goals of the patenting strategy with the benchmarking process, capturing the value drivers relevant to the specific context from a firm, technology and industry perspective. The methods leading up to the framework are a literature review of the empirical and theoretical arguments for different valuation metrics, a case study to understand the specific valuation context and a patent search for gathering the necessary patent data. The study concludes that patent valuation for strategic purposes is highly contextual. Finding a balance between comprehensive and manageable valuation processes is essential. Although the contextualization can be time-consuming, it enhances transparency and fosters important discussions about what constitutes the value of patenting