Patent Portfolio Analysis of Cities: Statistics and Maps of Technological Inventiveness

Cities are engines of the knowledge-based economy, because they are the primary sites of knowledge production activities that subsequently shape the rate and direction of technological change and economic growth. Patents provide a wealth of information to analyse the knowledge specialization at specific places, such as technological details and information on inventors and entities involved, including address information. The technology codes on each patent document indicate the specialization and scope of the underlying technological knowledge of a given invention. In this paper we introduce tools for portfolio analysis in terms of patents that provide insights into the technological specialization of cities. The mapping and analysis of patent portfolios of cities using data of the Unites States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website (at http://www.uspto.gov) and dedicated tools (at http://www.leydesdorff.net/portfolio) can be used to analyse the specialisation patterns of inventive activities among cities. The results allow policy makers and other stakeholders to identify promising areas of further knowledge development and ‘smart specialisation’ strategies.