Delay from patent filing to technology transfer: A statistical study at a major public research organization

An analysis is given of the statistical distribution of the delays between patent filings and their corresponding transfer agreements in a major public research organization, the Commissariat l’Energie Atomique (CEA) in France, over the 1985–2004 period. These “patenting to transfer delays” (PTDs) display four main features: (i) for agreements on isolated patents, the (truncated) log-normal distribution of PTDs has a geometric mean of 3.7 years±14%years±14% with a standard deviation defined by a factor 2.6 above and below mean; (ii) the mean geometric PTD increases with the number of patents involved in the agreements; (iii) more surprisingly, mean geometric PTDs appear independent of the originating divisions of CEA, covering very diverse technical fields, and also display insignificant evolutions over 20 years, despite the advent of several major technological shifts; (iv) at variance with unsupported claims found in the literature, license revenues appear uncorrelated to the corresponding PTDs.Implications of the observed trends on innovation management at micro- and macro-economic level are also considered. The quasi-invariance of mean PTDs over 20 years may be due to the dominance of external human and economic factors during patent to transfer. It is conjectured that similar conclusions could be reached in other public research organizations in the world, the factors affecting this incubation delay being “universal.”