The impact of the development of smart cities on the patent system: a comparison between Brazil and The United States of America (USA)

Objective: This article aims to investigate the impact of the innovative concept of Smart Cities on the patent system, comparing the economies of a developing country such as Brazil and that of a developed country such as the United States of America (USA). Methodology: The research constitutes an exploratory stage of data collection, adopting a quantitative-qualitative approach. Data was collected from 2015 to the present day. The research design is bibliographic, investigating the Web of Science and Scopus databases, as well as patent bases. Relevance: Relevance consists of the need for in-depth studies on the impacts generated on a country by the economic development through the perception of the importance of adopting innovative technologies to change technological paradigms. Main results: In both countries, the results show the concentration of patent applications in the IPC (International Patent Classification) H04, focusing on technologies linked to the Internet of Things (IoT). However, in Brazil the concentration of patent applications intended for application in Smart Cities had a small increase from 2021 onwards, while in the USA there was an exponential increase from 2019 onwards. Theoretical Contributions: The influence of the technological trajectory of the countries analyzed can be seen, making it clear that in a country with a production economic matrix there is no significant impact on the patent system, while in a country with an economic matrix of knowledge, there is a large increase in patent filings.