U.S. Patent Inventor Careers and Co-Authorship Networks Since 1975

U.S. patent data from 1975 onward, disambiguated to identify individual inventors. The dataset enables the construction of social networks based on patent co-authorship. It was created by Ronald Lai and is intended for public use and community improvement.

Use Cases

• Analyze inventor career trajectories based on patenting activity over time.
• Map co-authorship networks for individuals, organizations, or technology fields.
• Study collaboration patterns and knowledge diffusion within specific regions.
• Calculate descriptive statistics on individual and collaborative patenting variables.

Strengths

• Data covers U.S. patents from at least 1975, providing a long-term view.
• Includes disambiguation algorithms to identify individual inventors, a key feature for network construction.
• Designed for public use and community-driven updates as new patents are issued.

Limitations

• Row count, column definitions, and file formats are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

U.S. patent database.

Collection Method

Processed using disambiguation algorithms to identify individual inventors.

Time Range

Since 1975.

Geography

United States.