The Patent Asset Index - A New Approach to Benchmark Patent Portfolios

Patent metrics are increasingly used to assess the competitive position of technology-oriented firms. Patent rankings and patent scoreboards have become very popular and highly visible methods to benchmark patent portfolios of firms against each other. Existing rankings, however, have severe methodological shortcomings that significantly reduce the meaningfulness of these benchmarks for mangers, investors and other stakeholders. In this paper, we develop a new benchmarking methodology that overcomes the key limitations of existing approaches and offers a more accurate assessment of a firm’s patent portfolio vis-à-vis its competitors. Firms are ranked according to the Patent Asset Index, which is derived from a set of newly developed patent indicators. These indicators are empirically validated and reflect more accurately the value of patents. We apply the new benchmarking method in the global chemical industry and contrast our findings with those of the other existing patent portfolio rankings.