Qualitative factors of patents affecting technology commercialization in 2020: An analysis of U.S. registered patents

The efficiency of government-funded R&D support in South Korea appears to be in need of improvement. The amount of patent transfers and total technology royalty income has decreased drastically. In this study, we analyzed the qualitative factors of patents influencing technology commercialization performance. We focused on 883 U.S. granted patents facilitated by government-funded R&D in 2020. The factors used include the SMART5 score, the number of citations, and the number of family patents. Results reveal that the SMART grade has a statistically significant impact, whereas the number of citations and family patents do not. This study contributes to the literature as we empirically examine as variables, the qualitative attributes of those patents that generated royalties. This is in combination with the factors influencing technology commercialization performance already identified in extant research.