  The contribution of academia to US patents has become increasingly global.
Following a pause, with a relatively flat rate, from 1998 to 2008, the
long-term trend of university patenting rising as a share of all patenting has
resumed, driven by the internationalization of academic entrepreneurship and
the persistence of US university technology transfer. We disaggregate this
recent growth in university patenting at the US Patent and Trademark
Organization (USPTO) in terms of nations and patent classes. Foreign patenting
in the US has almost doubled during the period 2009-2014, mainly due to
patenting by universities in Taiwan, Korea, China, and Japan. These nations
compete with the US in terms of patent portfolios, whereas most European
countries--with the exception of the UK--have more specific portfolios, mainly
in the bio-medical fields. In the case of China, Tsinghua University holds 63%
of the university patents in USPTO, followed by King Fahd University with 55.2%
of the national portfolio.
