IC設計業之跨國專利及其企業營收之關聯分析

Abstract

本研究在探討台灣IC設計公司專利對企業營收的影響，以及跨國申請專利對企業營收是否有價值。本研究先將企業申請的專利，以四種專利相對專利地位、相對技術異質性、賀芬達指數、加權引證數來衡量其專利的價值，再搭配台灣專利資料和美國專利資料，來探討跨國專利和企業營收的關聯。本研究採用台灣IC設計產業的上市公司，共23家，1999年到2008年的縱橫段面資料。 實證結果顯示，跨國專利對企業營收有顯著影響，但是專利指標上的表現，和台灣專利有不同程度的影響。台灣專利顯著的指標是相對專利地位、相對技術異質性和加權引證數；而美國專利顯著的指標是相對專利地位和賀芬達指數。 實務上最重要的發現，就是在美國申請專利成功代表的是企業的高技術水平，即使企業客戶都不在美國，對企業營收仍有顯著幫助。企業在申請專利上，確實會依照不同國別做不同的策略考量。

The purpose of this study is to discuss the impacts of IC design house patenting to enterprises’ revenues, and whether foreign patenting has value-added on enterprises’ revenues. This study will first derive the enterprises’ patent applications by using three patent indicators-relative patent position; relative technology advantage; Herfindahl -Hirschman index; and weighted patent counts to evaluate the values of patents, and then collocate with Taiwanese patent data and USA patent data to investigate the relationship of foreign patenting and enterprises’ revenues. This study uses Taiwanese IC designed listed companies (total of 23 companies and between year 1999 to 2008 Panel data). As the result indicates that: The foreign patenting has strong correlation on enterprises’ revenues, but different between Taiwanese patent data in patent indicators. Taiwanese patent data has significantly high correlation in relative patent position; relative technology advantage; and weighted patent counts, but USA patent data has significantly high correlation in relative patent position; and Herfindahl -Hirschman index. As the evidences show that the success of patent applications in USA are due to enterprises’ high standard of technology, even if those enterprises’ customers are not in USA, the useful patents still contribute to the enterprises’ revenues. According to patenting different countries, enterprises indeed have their different strategy.