Evaluation method for nature of basic invention by patent analysis

The acquisition of so-called basic inventions which can cover a broader scope is one of most important purposes in research and development of companies and research institutions. However, there have been little quantitative studies on the nature of basic invention. The authors have explored evaluation method for the nature of basic invention. The authors found that claimed inventions can be categorized into two types according to the description of specification regardless of technical fields. One is the invention which has a patent claim based on quantitative and factual description of embodiment of specification while the other is the invention which has a patent claim based on qualitative description of embodiment. The former is referred to as “Quantitative Embodiment Type” while the latter is referred to as “Qualitative Embodiment Type”. The two types are closely related to number of limitation terms (L) included in the patent claim, which function as terms providing limitation to the scope of the patent claim, and number of specifying words (S) included in the patent claim, each of which specifies a term that has already appeared in the patent claim. Compared to Qualitative Embodiment Type, Quantitative Embodiment Type has patent claim including extremely fewer L and S. This indicates that Quantitative Embodiment Type has a broader scope than Qualitative Embodiment Type.