Exploring patent quality indicators in pre-filing stage: Development of propositions and suggestion of research method

Patent has been considered as an important asset nowadays. People pursue the increase of patent quantity whereas less attention has been paid on the patent quality. Patent growth without quality assurance may result in financial and management burden that comes from great maintenance cost and unsatisfied profit-returned of these patents. To raise the ROI (return-of-investment) of patent filing, especially under the tough conditions: limitation of R&D funds and high risk of involving in patent litigation, people have gradually realized how important the patent quality is. Nevertheless, prior studies on the indicators of patent quality mostly focused on post-granted patents, little understanding of what indicators or criteria really help to assess patent quality in pre-filing stage. This paper aims to explore indicators for evaluating quality before formally filing patent application. Through comprehensively reviewing existing literature, collecting practitioners´ technical reports, and survey of experts´ opinions, we developed a series of criteria and indicators for patent quality, including several constructs, e.g. possibility for being granted, potential market value, competitiveness in litigation etc. These indicators are expected to help the decision for patent filing and enhancing the quality of patents, ultimately reducing cost of patent maintenance and increasing patent value.