A study of the seasonality and overall quantity and quality of Chinese patenting, including international comparisons, suggests that government planning and annual targets encouraged gaming of the system, which increased patent counts but negatively affected patent quality.
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Acknowledgements
This research was partly funded by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The opinions expressed in the paper are the authors’ own. The authors are grateful to Stuart Graham of the Georgia Institute of Technology, formerly chief economist of the USPTO, for his support and comments.
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Sun, Z., Lei, Z., Wright, B.D. et al. Government targets, end-of-year patenting rush and innovative performance in China. Nat Biotechnol 39, 1068–1075 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-01035-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-01035-x