Technological Convergence Applied to Patent Documents on Sugarcane Seedlings’s Production Techniques through Co-classiication Analysis

Abstract

Technological convergence studies generally use complex analyzes, such as co-citations , co-words, co-authorship, involving papers and patent. This paper describes a simple methodology to be applied to studies of technological convergence by the co-classification analysis of patent documents. A technological mapping was carried out through an advanced search in the Derwent Innovation Index base about the production of sugarcane seedlings between 2000 and 2016. The technological convergence rates between technological fields of the same section (intra-section) and between different sections (inter-section) of the Derwent classifications were calculated. The results point to relatively low convergence rates, reaching 8.36% for intra-section convergences in 2014 and 5.81% for inter-section convergences in 2012. The predominant Derwent classifications were the fermentation, biotechnology and plant crop industry, associated to the techniques of production of seedlings by genetic engineering / plant breeding and control of diseases and pests. Converging technologies are in cutting-edge areas such as biotechnology, which need disciplinary complementarity in the innovation process to achieve agricultural productivity gains, cost savings, and innovations in plant breeding. The contribution of this work is in the description of a methodology that can be applied to other types of patent classification in different technological areas.