Link Compustat – USPTO Patent Assignment Dataset

This page provides the data resulting from linking assignees and assignors in the USPTO Patent Assignment Dataset to Compustat gvkeys. We work with a version of the USPTO PAD that was gracefully shared with us by Stuart Graham. Such version precedes by one year the first release available at the USPTO website (https://www.uspto.gov/ip-policy/economic-research/research-datasets/patent-assignment-dataset). The version that we use covers 5,534,135 transactions recorded at the USPTO between January 1970 and January 2013 (inclusive). While the first transaction date is January 1970, the number of transactions recorded in the initial years is negligible. Data coverage seems sufficient for the years 1981-2012.

If you use the code or data, please cite the following two papers:

Arque-Castells, P., and Spulber, D. (2022). Measuring the Private and Social Returns to R&D: Unintended Spillovers versus Technology Markets. Journal of Political Economy. https://doi.org/10.1086/719908

Arqué Castells, Pere and Spulber, Daniel F., Firm Matching in the Market for Technology: Business Stealing and Business Creation (September 17, 2021). Northwestern Law & Econ Research Paper No. 18-14, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3041558 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3041558