Academic inventors as brokers

Academic inventors are university scientists who appear as designated inventors of patents owned either by business companies, academic institutions or individuals. We analyse their relationships with co-inventors, who may be either academic colleagues, students, or, very often, industrial researchers. Gould and Fernandez's (1989) taxonomy of ‘brokerage’ roles is adjusted to patent data, and complemented with information drawn from both academic inventors’ publications and replies to a short questionnaire. Only very few academic inventors are found to hold brokerage positions. Such inventors have a large number of patents, a strong publication record and a higher-than-average share of patents held by companies, rather than universities. Relationships of academic inventors with co-inventors from industry are weaker and less likely to be maintained than those with co-inventors from academia. Academic inventors in gatekeeping positions (between university and industry) maintain the strongest ties with all types of co-inventors.