Linkage between science and technology — A case study of global leading smartphone companies

In this study, the number and the strength of scientific linkage of smartphone related patents of global leading companies is analyzed. The results show that patents with litigation or transfer cite more journal papers. Therefore, the analysis of the strength of scientific linkage of smartphone related patents of global leading companies will help to evaluate the quality or value of the patents. The companies that have been listed in the worldwide smartphone vendor market share by IDC from 2012Q1 to 2013Q2 is included in this study. The results show that the top two smartphone companies, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd and Apple Inc., both have strong technology capacities. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd own 9,534 smartphone related patents, which is ranked second in the 10 companies. The strength of Apple Inc.´s patents is high though it has only 2,267 patents. The percentage of patents citing journal articles of Apple Inc. is the highest among the 10 companies. Both the patents of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd and those of Apple Inc. have cited the journal articles published by the institutes in the country where these two companies are located.