Comprehensive Universe of U.S. Patents (CUSP): Data and Facts

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51606362190691.pdf (832.3 KB)

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http://hdl.handle.net/11603/30709

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UMBC Economics Department

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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5117-9918

Date

2016-09-07

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journal articles
preprints
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Abstract

Patents are commonly used as the main source of data for empirical studies related to innovation and technological change. The large amount of information about the underlying innovative process contained in each patent has certainly contributed to their popularity. Nevertheless, due to the lack of reliable data, historical analysis has focused on relatively small time frames or on specific dimensions of patents data. The goal of this paper is to fill this gap. I build and release a comprehensive time series of the universe of U.S. patents. The data set contains all the variables commonly used in the literature and, importantly, geolocates every inventor and assignee reported in each grant over the period 1836-2016.